Scotland v South Africa, Murrayfield, November 20
Lawson leads Scotland against new-look Boks
ESPNscrum Staff
November 17, 2010
Scotland's Nathan Hines follows the action, Scotland v France, Six Nations Championship, Murrayfield, Edinburgh, Scotland, February 7, 2010
Nathan Hines starts in the back-row for Scotland © Getty Images
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Tournaments/Tours: South Africa tour

Gloucester scrum-half Rory Lawson will skipper Scotland against South Africa on Saturday after Mike Blair was ruled out of the game with concussion.

Lawson will take the reins of the national team for the first time and leads a side showing five changes and a positional switch from last weekend's hammering at the hands of New Zealand. Leinster's Nathan Hines starts at blindside flanker, with Saracens back-rower Kelly Brown shifting to No.8 in place of Richie Vernon. In the second-row, Gloucester's Jim Hamilton misses out to the recalled Scott McLeod.

Ospreys wing Nikki Walker starts out wide in place of Rory Lamont while Lawson takes over the No.9 jersey and captaincy. A late change came in midfield, where uncapped Northampton centre Joe Ansbro was drafted in to cover the injured Max Evans.

South Africa head coach Peter de Villiers has made four changes. Two of the changes are enforced, with Bryan Habana having been ruled out of the rest of the tour through injury and Bjorn Basson having been sent home along with replacement hooker Chiliboy Ralepelle, after both tested positive for a banned stimulant following the tour-opening win over Ireland last Saturday week.

The uncapped Lwazi Mvovo replaces Habana on the left wing, while Basson's unavailability sees Gio Aplon switch to the right wing and Zane Kirchner earn a recall at fullback. Elsewhere, Francois Hougaard has been preferred to Ruan Pienaar scrum-half, while Ryan Kankowski has taken over at No.8 from Pierre Spies. Pienaar has been relegated to the bench but Spies misses out altogether.

Scotland: H Southwell (Stade Francais); N Walker (Ospreys), J Ansbro (Northampton), G Morrison (Glasgow Warriors), S Lamont (Scarlets); D Parks (Cardiff Blues), R Lawson (Gloucester); A Jacobsen (Edinburgh), R Ford (Edinburgh), E Murray (Northampton), R Gray (Glasgow Warriors), S MacLeod (Edinburgh), N Hines (Leinster), J Barclay (Glasgow Warriors), K Brown (Saracens)

Replacements: D Hall (Glasgow), M Low (Glasgow), R Vernon (Glasgow), R Rennie (Edinburgh), G Laidlaw (Edinburgh), R Jackson (Glasgow Warriors), C Paterson (Edinburgh)

South Africa: Z Kirchner (Blue Bulls); G Aplon (Western Province), F Steyn (Racing Metro), J de Villiers (Western Province), L Mvovo (Natal Sharks); M Steyn (Blue Bulls), F Hougaard (Blue Bulls); T Mtawarira (Natal Sharks), B du Plessis (Natal Sharks), J du Plessis (Natal Sharks); B Botha (Blue Bulls), V Matfield (Blue Bulls, capt); D Stegmann (Blue Bulls), J Smith, R Kankowski (Natal Sharks)

Replacements: A Strauss (Free State Cheetahs), CJ van der Linde (Free State Cheetahs), F van der Merwe (Blue Bulls), W Alberts (Natal Sharks), R Pienaar (Ulster), P Lambie (Natal Sharks), Adi Jacobs (Natal Sharks)

Referee: Stuart Dickinson (Aus)
Assistant Referees: Alain Rolland (Ire), Federico Pastrana (Arg)
TMO: Tony Redmond (Ire)

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