Six Nations: Scotland hand lock Gregor Brown first championship start for clash vs title-favourites France

Gregor Brown will make his first Six Nations start for Scotland after being selected in the second row for Saturday's showdown with France in Paris.

The 23-year-old Glasgow forward, who made his debut last summer, will take the place of Jonny Gray who drops to the bench for the Stade de France showdown.

In the only other change to the starting XV, Matt Fagerson takes over from the injured Jack Dempsey at No 8. Co-captain Rory Darge has recovered from the hip issue that forced him off in last Saturday's victory over Wales and takes his place in the back row.

Edinburgh forwards Marshall Sykes and Ben Muncaster will get their first involvement of the championship after being named as substitutes. Injured Edinburgh lock Sam Skinner plus Glasgow backs Kyle Rowe and George Horne - who were all on the bench last weekend - drop out of the 23 altogether.

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The Scots are no longer in title contention but can play a part in deciding the outcome of the championship, with France requiring a victory to secure the silverware.

Scotland: 15 Blair Kinghorn, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Tom Jordan, 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Finn Russell (co-capt), 9 Ben White; 1 Pierre Schoeman, 2 Dave Cherry, 3 Zander Fagerson, 4 Gregor Brown, 5 Grant Gilchrist, 6 Jamie Ritchie, 7 Rory Darge (co-capt), 8 Matt Dempsey.

Replacements: 16 Ewan Ashman, 17 Rory Sutherland, 18 Will Hurd, 19 Jonny Gray, 20 Marshall Sykes, 21 Ben Muncaster, 22 Jamie Dobie, 23 Stafford McDowall.

Lucu, Fickou start for France as Les Bleus name 7-1 bench split again

Les Bleus know that a victory of any kind - owing to their immense advantage over England in terms of points difference - will see them to a first Six Nations title since 2022 and only a second since 2010.

Fresh from their demolition of Grand Slam-chasing Ireland, France make two enforced backline changes.

Scrum-half Maxime Lucu comes in to start with skipper and talisman Antoine Dupont out for the foreseeable after his ACL knee injury, while centre Gael Fickou also comes in due to Pierre-Louis Barassi failing his HIA in Dublin.

The interesting aspect to France's selection comes with their bench, where they once again go with the risky and controversial 7-1 split of forwards to backs.

Last week, La Rochelle back-row Oscar Jegou came on and had to play centre for over half the game vs Ireland, but did it unbelievably well. As such, head coach Fabien Galthie is confident to go with just a scrum-half as conventional backline cover: Nolann Le Garrec coming into the squad.

France: 15 Thomas Ramos, 14 Damian Penaud, 13 Pierre Louis Barassi, 12 Yoram Moefana, 11 Louis Bielle Biarrey, 10 Romain Ntamack, 9 Maxime Lucu; 1 Jean Baptiste Gros, 2 Peato Mauvaka, 3 Uini Atonio, 4 Thibaud Flament, 5 Mickael Guillard, 6 Francois Cros, 7 Paul Boudehent, 8 Gregory Alldritt (c).

Replacements: 16 Julien Marchand, 17 Cyril Baille, 18 Dorian Aldegheri, 19 Emmanuel Meafou, 20 Hugo Auradou, 21 Oscar Jegou, 22 Anthony Jelonch, 23 Nolann Le Garrec.

Six Nations Super Saturday fixtures: Round Five

Saturday March 15

Italy vs Ireland (2.15pm kick-off)

Wales vs England (4.45pm kick-off)

France vs Scotland (8pm kick-off)

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