Saturday 28 September 2019 18:04, UK
Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend has made five changes to his side to face Samoa at the Kobe Misaki Stadium on Monday.
Scotland lost their first Rugby World Cup Pool A Test to Ireland last Saturday 27-3, and know they can ill-afford another defeat in the race to make a quarter-final.
Two of Scotland's starting changes come in the backline where Edinburgh wing Darcy Graham and Gloucester centre Chris Harris - try-scorers against Georgia and France in respective Summer Tests - start in place of Tommy Seymour and Duncan Taylor, the latter moving to the bench.
A new back-row trio makes up the three remaining changes in the pack as fit-again Jamie Ritchie starts in place of the injured Hamish Watson (knee), with Watson's wider squad replacement Magnus Bradbury [pictured above] operating on the blindside, and Scarlets Blade Thomson at number 8.
"Samoa are a team capable of scoring points from anywhere on the field. They play an ambitious brand of rugby and their team is full of skilful and powerful players," Townsend said.
"We had worked hard in our build-up this tournament to deliver our best rugby but we were well below this level in our opening game against Ireland. We'll need to be much better on Monday night against such a dangerous opponent.
"It's been a long week building towards a game where we intend to put a lot of things right.
"The players have responded well in training, know what is required of them and are hungry to deliver the kind of performance that keeps us in the world cup.
"The reality is we now have to win our next three games to make it out of our pool, so the knockout stages for us begin this Monday night."
"I firmly believe this group are ready to take on that challenge."
Scotland: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Chris Harris, 12 Sam Johnson, 11 Sean Maitland, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Greig Laidlaw; 1 Allan Dell, 2 Stuart McInally (c), 3 Willem Nel , 4 Grant Gilchrist, 5 Jonny Gray, 6 Magnus Bradbury, 7 Jamie Ritchie, 8 Blade Thomson.
Replacements: 16 Fraser Brown, 17 Gordon Reid, 18 Zander Fagerson, 19 Scott Cummings, 20 Ryan Wilson, 21 George Horne, 22 Adam Hastings, 23 Duncan Taylor.
