Scotland v Ireland: Teams
Ruaridh Jackson makes his first start in a much changed Scotland line-up for Sunday's Six Nations fixture with Ireland.
Last Updated: 25/02/11 12:57pm
Scotland welcome Ireland to Murrayfield on Sunday looking to avoid a third straight defeat in the RBS Six Nations.
Andy Robinson's men followed a promising performance when going down 34-21 to France in their Paris opener with a woeful 24-6 defeat against Wales at home two weeks ago.
Robinson has responded by making seven changes to Scotland's starting XV, including a new half-back pairing.
Scrum-half Rory Lawson and fly-half Dan Parks drop to the bench to make way for Mike Blair and Ruaridh Jackson, who will be making his maiden start.
Sean Lamont and Chris Paterson also come into the back division after Sean's brother Rory, Joe Ansbro and Hugo Southwell were ruled out by injury.
Paterson will take over place kicking from Parks, leaving Jackson free to concentrate on his creative duties.
In the pack, Euan Murray is unavailable as he declines to play on Sundays due to his religious convictions.
Moray Low replaces Murray at tighthead prop, Richie Gray is preferred to Nathan Hines in the second row and Johnnie Beattie takes the number eight jersey from Richie Vernon for his first Scotland appearance since last June.
O'Gara recalled
Ireland have dropped Jonathan Sexton to the bench and handed the fly-half jersey to Ronan O'Gara in an effort to cut out the errors that have marred their championship thus far.
The veteran Munster stand-off will be winning his 106th cap and is partnered by Wasps scrum-half Eoin Reddan, filling in for the injured Tomas O'Leary.
Tommy Bowe is also restored the starting line-up on the right wing after recovering from injury. Fergus McFadden, a try scorer in the defeat to France last time out, finds himself omitted from the match-day squad altogether, with Paddy Wallace preferred on the bench.
Scotland: 15 C Paterson, 14 N Walker, 13 N De Luca, 12 S Lamont,11 M Evans, 10 R Jackson, 9 M Blair; 1 A Jacobsen, 2 R Ford, 3 M Low, 4 R Gray, 5 A Kellock (capt), 6 K Brown, 7 J Beattie, 8 J Barclay
Replacements: 16 S Lawson, 17 G Cross, 18 N Hines, 19 R Vernon, 20 R Lawson, 21 D Parks, 22 S Danielli
Ireland: 15 L Fitzgerald, 14 T Bowe, 13 B O'Driscoll (capt), 12 G D'Arcy, 11 K Earls, 10 R O'Gara, 9 E Reddan; 1 C Healy, 2 R Best, 3 M Ross, 4 D O'Callaghan, 5 P O'Connell, 6 S O'Brien, 7 D Wallace, 8 J Heaslip
Replacements: 16 S Cronin, 17 T Court, 18 L Cullen, 19 D Leamy, 20 P Stringer, 21 J Sexton, 22 P Wallace
