{"id":300184,"date":"2025-11-21T22:51:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T22:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/300184\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T22:51:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T22:51:08","slug":"tuipulotu-keeps-scotland-place-as-townsend-makes-14-changes-for-tonga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/300184\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuipulotu keeps Scotland place as Townsend makes 14 changes for Tonga"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Scotland captain Sione Tuipulotu was the only player to keep his place in the starting team as coach Gregor Townsend made 14 changes for Sunday&#8217;s Autumn Nations Series clash with Tonga at Murrayfield.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Townsend has opted for a wholesale revamp following last week&#8217;s painful 33-24 loss at home to Argentina, when Scotland squandered a 21-0 lead with just over a quarter of the game remaining.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.stan.com.au\/sport\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"css-tm001h\">Watch every second of the 2025 Autumn Nations Series live and on demand via Stan Sport.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Zander Fagerson will make his first appearance in more than seven months after being selected to start Scotland&#8217;s final match of their November campaign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">The Glasgow prop has been sidelined since April due to calf and knee injuries but will be a member of an experienced front row alongside Rory Sutherland and hooker George Turner, who will win his 50th cap.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">In the backs, record try-scorer Duhan van der Merwe returns on the wing after being dropped for the past two Tests.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Kyle Rowe is on the other wing, with full-back Tom Jordan completing the back three.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Saracens fly-half Fergus Burke will win his third cap in place of Finn Russell, who drops out of the matchday 23 completely.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Magnus Bradbury makes his first Scotland start for over three years at No 8, with flankers Andy Onyeama-Christie and Jamie Ritchie coming into the side.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Scotland are ninth in the world rankings, 10 places above Tonga, meaning victory over the Pacific islanders is unlikely to quieten the growing debate over the long-serving Townsend&#8217;s future as Scotland boss.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Meanwhile, dual national Sitaleki Timani, will become the oldest debutant to play for one of the leading rugby nations should he come off the bench at Murrayfield.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">The lock, who won 18 caps for\u00a0Australia\u00a0from 2011-13, is 39-years-old.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">He is now set for his first appearance for Tonga, the country of his birth, after being named among the islanders&#8217; replacements, with 34-year-old giant prop Ben Tameifuna captaining the side.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Scotland began their autumn campaign with an 85-0 rout of rugby minnows the United States but defeats by New Zealand and Argentina again exposed their inability to close out wins.<\/p>\n<p>Teams (15-1)<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Scotland<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Tom Jordan; Kyle Rowe, Ollie Smith, Sione Tuipulotu (capt), Duhan van der Merwe; Fergus Burke, Ben White; Magnus Bradbury, Jamie Ritchie, Andy Onyeama-Christie; Max Williamson, Alex Samuel; Zander Fagerson, George Turner, Rory Sutherland<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Replacements: Ewan Ashman, Nathan McBeth, Will Hurd, Marshall Sykes, Josh Bayliss, George Horne, Stafford McDowall, Kyle Steyn<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Tonga<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">William Havili; Taniela Filimone, Fine Inisi, Solomone Kata, John Tapueluelu; Patrick Pellegrini, Sonatane Takulua; Lotu Inisi, Siosiua Moala, Semisi Paea; Veikoso Poloniati, Harison Mataele; Ben Tameifuna (capt), Siua Maile, Siegfried Fisi&#8217;ihoi<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Replacements: Samiuela Moli, Fatongia Paea, Phillip Kite, Sitaleki Timani, Fotu Lokotui, Aisea Halo, Tima Fainga\u2019anuku, Anzelo Tuitavuki<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scotland captain Sione Tuipulotu was the only player to keep his place in the starting team as coach&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,5994,85,18559],"class_list":{"0":"post-300184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tonga"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}