Scotland v France: Finn Russell takes on captaincy, with Jamie Ritchie absent

Finn Russell spent 5 years playing successful France with Racing 92 earlier his summertime determination to Bath

"Infectious competitiveness" and beardown enactment skills marque Finn Russell an evident prime to skipper Scotland, said caput manager Gregor Townsend.

"He has ever been a person for america successful presumption of attack," explained Townsend. "He has evidently got older, got much experience, and it's the close clip to springiness him that opportunity."

Russell's promotion to skipper comes little than 10 months aft Townsend near the 30-year-old retired of his archetypal squad for the 2022 autumn series.

The Bath summertime signing shone against New Zealand and Argentina erstwhile brought backmost into the fold past November and carried that bully signifier into the Six Nations, with Scotland finishing third.

"He's hitting that saccharine spot aft playing for 10-12 years successful 1 presumption and against immoderate of the champion teams around," added Townsend. "You get an knowing of wherever abstraction mightiness unfastened up, what you tin bring arsenic a player.

"If you've got the carnal broadside close too, past you tin exploit those opportunities.

"He's truly motivated astir playing for Scotland and for playing nine rugby for the adjacent fewer years. If you tin get that premix and helium continues to improve, we person 1 of the champion players successful that presumption successful the satellite with us.

"Finn is simply a precise bully connecter. He likes spending clip with different radical successful the squad and that's a truly bully mode of leading. His cognition of the crippled is precise bully and his competitiveness is infectious.

"He wants to win. He mightiness beryllium doing it with a smile, different times he's winding up the absorption oregon getting backmost for a tackle. We privation our leaders prepared to enactment their bodies connected the line, to enactment hard to assistance the squad win."

• Scotland 'have to deliver' astatine World Cup - Schoeman

Winger Darcy Graham and Matt Fagerson are the lone players retained from the starting XV successful past weekend's triumph implicit Italy.

Fagerson switches to blindside flanker, with Jack Dempsey coming successful astatine fig eight.

For the 2nd of 4 tourney warm-up matches, astir of the frontline stars who performed good successful the Six Nations are back, with fly-half Russell linking up with scrum-half Ben White and the centre concern of Huw Jones and Sione Tuipulotu restored.

Ewan Ashman is the least-established subordinate chosen to look the World Cup hosts arsenic Townsend assesses his options astatine hooker.

Blair Kinghorn takes implicit from Ollie Smith astatine full-back arsenic those 2 vie to win the retired Stuart Hogg.

Smith is among the replacements, on with Rory Darge, who led the squad successful the 25-13 triumph implicit Italy.

Townsend described Ritchie's calf strain arsenic a "tweak", saying his regular skipper could beryllium acceptable successful clip for a instrumentality lucifer with France successful Saint-Etienne connected 12 August.

Scotland unfastened their World Cup run against reigning champions South Africa successful 5 weeks' time.

Scotland: Kinghorn, Graham, Jones, Tuipulotu, Van der Merwe, Russell (captain), White; Schoeman, Ashman, Z Fagerson, Gray, Gilchrist, M Fagerson, Watson, Dempsey.

Replacements: Cherry, Bhatti, Nel, Cummings, Darge, Horne, Redpath, Smith.

• Blur: Radio 2 successful Concert: Enjoy a enactment of classical songs and caller tunes from this iconic band
• Why would you privation to debar reddish ropes? Take a travel backmost to Ancient Greece to find out...