Scotland v Australia: Greig Laidlaw tells Scots not to look back at World Cup agony
Last Updated: 12/11/16 2:05pm
Scotland and Australia will meet at Murrayfield on Saturday for the first time since their controversial Rugby World Cup quarter-final.
Bernard Foley's 79th minute penalty - which South African referee Craig Joubert later confessed had been incorrectly-awarded - secured a 35-34 victory for Australia at Twickenham in October last year.
Following a disappointing Rugby Championship campaign, Australia produced an accomplished attacking performance in their 32-8 win against Wales last Saturday.
Scotland have won just seven of their 16 Tests against Australia at Murrayfield, with only one of those victories coming since 1981, and will be hoping to buck that trend in their opening autumn international.
Vern Cotter is without injured props WP Nel and Alasdair Dickinson so Edinburgh's Allan Dell makes his debut at loosehead and Glasgow's Zander Fagerson makes his first start.
Hooker Ross Ford will make his 100th appearance and become Scotland's third cap centurion, after Chris Paterson and Sean Lamont.
Greig Laidlaw continues to captain the side from scrum-half and admits that World Cup duel will be in their minds but the focus has to be on the present.
"Nothing will ever make up for that defeat. We can use what happened in the World Cup to help us, but we need to stay in the moment," said Laidlaw.
"We'll never get that game back. We need to put our energy into the performance rather than looking back.
"We need to be really tight in our defence, really tight in our driving maul, our forward play, so we're not giving away cheap points."
Michael Cheika has made just one change to the starting XV that dominated Wales in Cardiff as Will Genia replaces Nick Phipps at scrum-half after being released from club duty by Stade Francais.
"I think Phipps had two really good games, I do, against New Zealand then against Wales," said Cheika.
"But Genia, I think he's been one of our best all season. I just feel that this is a good game for him to play, come back in and get straight into it and then Nick will finish the game.
"I think Nick's standard has definitely gone up from what I saw earlier in the year and now there's a real competition going on there."
Cheika also praised No 8 Lopeti Timani, who has started Australia's last three Tests after replacing David Pocock against Argentina last month.
"He's continually making me pick him," Cheika added. "He's doing lots of good tight work and also when he needs to carry he's carrying well."
Pocock will start at blindside flanker for the second time in his Test career, having played there against Wales, while the returning Dean Mumm has been named among the substitutes.
Israel Folau will achieve his 50th cap at Murrayfield and has missed just three Tests since his debut back in 2013 and Phipps is set to hit 50 off the bench.
Scotland: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Sean Maitland, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Alex Dunbar, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Greig Laidlaw (c), 1 Allan Dell, 2 Ross Ford, 3 Zander Fagerson, 4 Richie Gray, 5 Jonny Gray, 6 John Barclay, 7 Hamish Watson, 8 Ryan Wilson.
Replacements: 16 Fraser Brown, 17 Gordon Reid, 18 Moray Low, 19 Grant Gilchrist, 20 John Hardie, 21 Ali Price, 22 Pete Horne, 23 Rory Hughes.
Australia: 15 Israel Folau; 14 Dane Haylett-Petty, 13 Tevita Kuridrani, 12 Reece Hodge, 11 Henry Speight; 10 Bernard Foley, 9 Will Genia 1 Scott Sio, 2 Stephen Moore (c), 3 Sekope Kepu, 4 Rory Arnold, 5 Adam Coleman, 6 David Pocock; 7 Michael Hooper, 8 Lopeti Timani.
Replacements: 16 Tolu Latu, 17 Tom Robertson, 18 Allan Alaalatoa, 19 Rob Simmons, 20 Will Skelton, 21 Dean Mumm, 22 Nick Phipps, 23 Quade Cooper.