Scotland team announcement

Gregor Townsend explains his Scotland scrum-half selection for the match against Italy.

Transcript

00:00 Going back and forward to Mon during this period, something's got to give in terms of

00:05 at rest at some point and we feel this week's the best week for him to recharge

00:14 and also with the form and experience of the two scrimmages we have in the squad.

00:20 We've been training really well of course, he's been on the bench, Al has been excellent during

00:24 this period so we want to give them an opportunity too. It's a good reward for George Horne,

00:30 hugely popular player in Scotland, I understand the fans would be, no disrespect to Ben White,

00:35 would be terrific but then you denied that George is getting a chance to start.

00:38 Yeah and George has performed well for us off the bench, really well. He brings energy,

00:45 a skill, he's very competitive but he's been a starter now for Glasgow for the last two seasons

00:51 so we're very confident that he can deliver a performance that brings about the best in him

00:58 and also the best in others. I also have an ally who's playing more rugby than ever at Edinburgh.

01:05 On the bench, it shows that we can change our game, we can bring more experience in that second half.