Jackson in at stand-off and Kellock fails to make bench

RUARIDH Jackson has been handed the starting stand-off slot and captain Alastair Kellock left out of Scotland’s crucial third Pool B match against Argentina in Wellington on Sunday as Scotland make five changes to the team that defeated Georgia.

There has been much speculation over the selection of this team after a fall-off in the performance by the first team against Romania caused a scare in the opening match in Invercargill, and the forward pack in particular stepped up the following week against Georgia.

Intriguingly, Jackson started at stand-off against Romania, Parks came off the bench to help the side recover the match and then played in the win over the Georgians, and also played in the wins over the Pumas last year. Yet Jackson is preferred as the Scots look to use a more attacking back division on Sunday.

Kellock seems to have paid the price both for the Romania drop-off and the performance of Jim Hamilton, who was a stand-out in the display against Georgia, and Hamilton comes in for Kellock to start alongside Richie Gray while Rory Lawson retains the captaincy.

Geoff Cross takes over from Euan Murray, the tighthead unavailable for Sunday games due to his religious beliefs, and John Barclay wins the No 7 jersey ahead of Ross Rennie in the only other change to the pack from that second game, which means Alasdair Strokosch keeps his blindside flanker place.

Scotland coach Andy Robinson said: “I have picked a team to beat Argentina. The selection is simply about this match and we must view it as another match, while affording our opponents the respect they deserve. We have met Argentina five times since the last Rugby World Cup so we both know each others’ styles and strengths. Of course we can draw confidence from our victories in Tucuman and Mar del Plata last year, just as Argentina will retain happy memories from their win at Murrayfield in 2009. I also believe that Argentina are a better team than we faced on their soil last year.”

Chris Paterson is also back in at full-back and will win his 108th cap as Scotland bid to win a sixth straight match for the first time since 1989-90.

Scotland dropped to eighth in the IRB World Rankings this week after Ireland’s victory over Australia lifted them into sixth spot and dropped Wales and Scotland down a step. The Scots are now just above Argentina.

Argentina name their team tomorrow.