NORTH Berwick rugby star Lewis Carmichael will make his first start for Scotland against USA in Houston, Texas on Saturday.
The 23-year-old, who scored off the bench as he made his international debut in the 48-10 win over Canada last weekend, comes into a much-changed side.
READ: Carmichael scores on Scotland debut
After making his debut in Edmonton, former North Berwick High School pupil Carmichael, will partner Edinburgh colleague Ben Toolis in the second row in Houston.
Stuart Hogg takes over the captaincy from Grant Gilchrist with tour captain Stuart McInally given more time to recover from a calf injury.
Carmichael, pictured above (left) with Edinburgh Rugby team-mates Blair Kinghorn, Magnus Bradbury and Murray McCallum after the win over Canada. Image courtesy Scottish Rugby/SNS Group, is one of seven players making his first international start.
The former North Berwick RFC ace made quite the impact on his debut as the tweet below shows.
6⃣ - @carkey05 beat 6⃣ defenders against Canada, no tier one player beat more at the weekend; it was also the most by a substitute for a tier one team since @George_North beat 9⃣ defenders as a replacement against Namibia in the 2011 RWC. Impact. https://t.co/4zASSvq0Bs
— OptaJonny (@OptaJonny) June 13, 2018
Joining Carmichael on their first Scotland starts are Glasgow quintet Jamie Bhatti, George Turner - who scored a hat-trick against Canada - and Adam Hastings - son of Scotland legend Gavin - as well as Matt Fagerson and George Horne, who will also win their first caps; back-row Luke Hamilton is the seventh player.
Scrum-half Horne and number eight Fagerson will also make their international bows alongside their elder brothers (Peter Horne is at inside centre and Zander Fagerson at tighthead prop).
See the full team below. . .
BREAKING | Stuart Hogg to captain Scotland in Summer Tour test against USA in Houston, Texas this Saturday.
— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) June 13, 2018
Saturday 16 June, kick-off 8pm (Sunday 2am UK time) - live on BBC. #AsOne pic.twitter.com/9xpTUXyOeW
Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend said: “There are seven players making their first starts for the country, which is really exciting, and we are looking forward to them going out and grabbing this opportunity.
“You can see in the way they attack and defend that they are well coached, added to which there are some exceptional individuals that offer running threats throughout their side, so this will be a real test for us.”
The game kicks off at 2am on Sunday morning UK time and is live on the BBC.
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