Scotland Six Nations: Gregor Townsend makes 3 changes for Italy trip as Finn Russell remains absent

One player dropped after starting first two matches as first and second rows shaken up

Gregor Townsend has made three changes to his side for the trip to Italy

Gregor Townsend has made three changes to his Scotland team ahead of this weekend's Six Nations trip to Rome to face Italy at the Stadio Olimpico - but there is no place for Darcy Graham with the Edinburgh wing not yet fully recovered from his knee injury.

The Scots go into round three on the back of two defeats at the hands of Ireland in Dublin and England at a rain-soaked BT Murrayfield as Eddie Jones' side reclaimed the Calcutta Cup.

In the front-row, former captain Stuart McInally comes in for Glasgow Warriors' hooker Fraser Brown, who is named among the replacements, while Ben Toolis starts in place of the injured Jonny Gray in another Edinburgh-for-Glasgow swap alongside Scott Cummings.

Toolis and Cummings paired up in the World Cup victory over Russia, while Townsend revealed that Harris and McInally were "very close" to starting the tournament.

Edinburgh hooker McInally is joined in the front-row by Rory Sutherland and Zander Fagerson while Jamie Ritchie and Hamish Watson retain their spots at blindside and openside respectively.

Warriors centre Huw Jones, who started the previous two matches, drops out of the matchday squad entirely with Gloucester's Chris Harris handed a starting berth and Byron McGuigan of Sale Sharks called up to the bench.

Magnus Bradbury is again preferred to Nick Haining at No.8 while Ali Price and Adam Hastings return at half-back for the third consecutive Test. The duo's Scotstoun colleague Sam Johnson partners Harris in the midfield.

Blair Kinghorn, who scored a hat-trick in the corresponding fixture in last year's championship teams up with Sean Maitland (right wing) and full-back Stuart Hogg in the back-three.

Scotland have won 22 of the 30 Test meetings between the two nations and have a quartet of consecutive victories from their last four trips to Rome, but head coach Townsend isn't underestimating the Italians.

“Italy are always a very tough opponent, especially in Rome, where we know they’ll look to play with a huge amount of energy," he said.

“It’s a different Italy team to the one we’ve played in the past. In their opening two games of the championship they have played with real ambition and width.

“They’ve also selected athletic, ball players who suit this strategy and are comfortable playing at a high tempo.

"We are well aware of the threats throughout their team and how their attacking game can cause problems for any defence.”

There are four changes to the replacements, with the recently called-up Matt Fagerson, Grant Gilchrist, WP Nel and McGuigan coming in for Haining, Harris, Simon Berghan and Toolis.

Scotland team to face Italy at Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Saturday 22 February, kick-off 2.15pm GMT (3.15pm local time) - live on ITV and STV.

15. Stuart Hogg, 14. Sean Maitland, 13. Chris Harris, 12. Sam Johnson, 11. Blair Kinghorn, 10. Adam Hastings, 9. Ali Price, 1. Rory Sutherland, 2. Stuart McInally, 3. Zander Fagerson, 4. Ben Toolis, 5. Scott Cummings, 6. Jamie Ritchie, 7. Hamish Watson, 8. Magnus Bradbury.

Replacements: 16. Fraser Brown, 17. Allan Dell, 18. WP Nel, 19, Grant Gilchrist, 20. Matt Fagerson, 21. George Horne, 22. Rory Hutchinson, 23. Byron McGuigan.