Munster's Ben Healy is set to make his Scotland debut after being named among the replacements for Saturday's Guinness Six Nations clash against Italy (12.30pm, live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player).
The former Ireland Under-20s back qualifies for Scotland through his mother and ahead of next season's move to Edinburgh was named in Gregor Townsend's squad in January but had yet to feature across the team's four games to date.
Healy had recently found himself third-choice out-half at Munster, behind Ireland internationals Joey Carbery and Jack Crowley.
Finn Russell, who was injured in the defeat to Ireland, is replaced at fly-half by Blair Kinghorn, with 23-year-old Tipperary man Healy included on the bench.
Versatile Edinburgh back Kinghorn played in the role on six consecutive occasions last year and appeared to have become Townsend’s favoured fly-half option before Russell (above) returned to the scene midway through the autumn Tests and reclaimed the position with a string of stunning displays.
Glasgow’s Ollie Smith – who made his debut on last year’s summer tour of South America – fills in for Stuart Hogg, also injured against Ireland, at full-back.
The third enforced change to the starting XV sees Edinburgh lock Sam Skinner take the place of Richie Gray, who suffered a blow to the ribs against Ireland last Sunday.
In the only unenforced alteration to the starting line-up, Edinburgh flanker Hamish Watson comes in for Matt Fagerson, who drops to the bench.
Cam Redpath is on the bench for the first time in the tournament.
Italy have handed winger Simone Gesi his Test debut and dropped veteran Edoardo Padovani as coach Kieran Crowley made several changes.
Italy lost 29-17 to Wales last weekend and Crowley said they did not execute their game plan well enough.
Scrum-half Alessandro Fusco replaces Stephen Varney, while Marco Riccioni replaces Simone Ferrari at tighthead prop.
Italy are the bottom of the table with one point after four matches and need a win against Scotland at Murrayfield in their final game of the 2023 championship to salvage some pride.
Scotland: Ollie Smith; Kyle Steyn, Huw Jones, Sione Tuipulotu, Duhan van der Merwe; Blair Kinghorn, Ben White; Pierre Schoeman, George Turner, Zander Fagerson; Sam Skinner, Jonny Gray; Jamie Ritchie, Hamish Watson, Jack Dempsey.
Replacements: Ewan Ashman, Rory Sutherland, WP Nel, Scott Cummings, Matt Fagerson, Ali Price, Ben Healy, Cameron Redpath.
Italy: Tommaso Allan; Pierre Bruno, Juan Ignacio Brex, Tommaso Menoncello, Simone Gesi; Paolo Garbisi, Alessandro Fusco; Danilo Fischetti, Giacomo Nicotera, Marco Riccioni; Edoardo Iachizzi, Federico Ruzza; Sebastian Negri, Michele Lamaro (capt), Lorenzo Cannone.
Replacements: Marco Manfredi, Federico Zani, Pietro Ceccarelli, Niccolo Cannone, Giovanni Pettinelli, Manuel Zuliani, Alessandro Garbisi, Luca Morisi.
Additional reporting: PA, Reuters.
Listen to the RTÉ Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Watch Scotland v Italy in the Six Nations on Saturday from 12.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player
Follow a live blog on Ireland v England on Saturday from 4pm on RTÉ.ie/sport and RTÉ News app and listen to live commentary on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
