Scotland team: France hero fit to face Ireland as Gregor Townsend’s side target Triple Crown and more
Scotland wing Kyle Steyn is fit to face Ireland.
Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend has made three changes to his starting XV for their final clash of the Six Nations campaign, against Ireland at the Aviva Stadium.
The Triple Crown decider also sees both nations still in the hunt for Championship glory, but that relies on France coming unstuck against England on Saturday night.
Injuries have ruled out Gregor Brown and Scott Cummings in the second-row, so in come Max Williamson and Grant Gilchrist, with the latter set to win an 88th cap and break Scott Murray’s all-time Scottish international appearance record in the position.
Change at tighthead
Zander Fagerson also comes in to start at tighthead prop, having been a replacement in last weekend’s thrilling Six Nations win over France. He is joined in the front-row by loosehead Pierre Schoeman and hooker George Turner.
Scotland‘s back-row remains unchanged with Glasgow Warriors trio Matt Fagerson (blindside flanker), vice-captain Rory Darge (openside) and number eight Jack Dempsey linking up for the third time in this year’s competition.
Townsend has named an unchanged back division from the one that combined to such effect against France, with last week’s Player of the Match Kyle Steyn joining fellow double try-scorer Darcy Graham, who took his tally to 37 to top Scotland’s all-time men’s list.
Blair Kinghorn is once more named at full-back, with captain Sione Tuipulotu and Huw Jones forming the centre partnership for the fifth straight Championship match.
Scrum-half Ben White is named alongside vice-captain and fly-half Finn Russell, ensuring that the same half-backs have also started each of Scotland’s matches in this year’s competition.
Among the replacements, there are first involvements of 2026 for second-row Alex Craig, back row Magnus Bradbury and Kyle Rowe, who will cover the back-three positions.
D’arcy Rae reverts to the bench having started last week, with the remaining substitutes – hooker Ewan Ashman, loosehead prop Rory Sutherland, scrum-half George Horne and fly-half/centre Tom Jordan – undertaking the same roles as in the previous penultimate round of fixtures.
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Scotland team to face Ireland
Scotland: 15 Blair Kinghorn, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Sione Tuipulotu (c), 11 Kyle Steyn, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Ben White, 8 Jack Dempsey, 7 Rory Darge, 6 Matt Fagerson, 5 Grant Gilchrist, 4 Max Williamson, 3 Zander Fagerson, 2 George Turner, 1 Pierre Schoeman
Replacements: 16 Ewan Ashman, 17 Rory Sutherland, 18 D’arcy Rae, 19 Alex Craig, 20 Magnus Bradbury, 21 George Horne, 22 Kyle Rowe, 23 Tom Jordan
Date: Saturday, 14 March, 2026
Kick-off: 14:10 GMT
Venue: Aviva Stadium, Dublin
TV: ITV, Virgin Media, TF1, SuperSport, Sky Italia, Sky NZ, Stan Sports, Peacock
Referee: Luke Pearce (RFU)
Assistant Referees: Angus Gardner (RA), Damian Schneider (UAR)
TMO: Andrew Jackson (RFU)
FPRO: Ian Tempest (RFU)
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