Sports43 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2016 Taylor replaces Scott in only Scotland change GLASGOW: Saracens centre Duncan head coach Vern Cotter. “We created Tommy Seymour make up the back 2014. Wales won 26-23 when the teams Taylor replaced Edinburgh’s Matt Scott in opportunities that could have been capi- three, with Finn Russell at fly-half and last met at Murrayfield last year. the only change to the Scotland team talised upon and converted into points. skipper Greig Laidlaw at scrum-half. Scotland team (15-1) announced on announced yesterday for tomorrow’s Six As a team we know we can perform bet- The pack retains its all-Edinburgh Thursday to play Wales in Saturday’s Six Nations showdown with Wales in Cardiff. ter and believe we’re capable of making front three of Alasdair Dickinson, Ross Nations match at Cardiff’s Principality Scott has been ruled out with a thigh improvements all over the park. Ford and Willem Nel, with brothers Jonny Stadium (1650 GMT kick-off): Stuart muscle injury sustained in training on “We know that Wales in Cardiff will and Richie Gray at lock and John Barclay, Hogg; Sean Maitland, Mark Bennett, Wednesday, enabling Taylor to come in not be easy, but our focus is on improv- John Hardie and David Denton in the Duncan Taylor, Tommy Seymour; Finn for his first start since 2014 following two ing our attacking and defensive mindset.” back row. Russell, Greig Laidlaw (capt); David injury-hit seasons. Scotland are bidding Taylor, 26, won the last of his 13 Scotland The only other change to the match- Denton, John Hardie, John Barclay; to bounce back from their 15-9 defeat by caps during the 2014 tour of the United day 23 sees experienced Glasgow wing Jonny Gray, Richie Gray; WP Nel, Ross England at Murrayfield last weekend. States, but he has impressed for Saracens Sean Lamont take Taylor’s place among Ford, Alasdair Dickinson Replacements: “This group have worked exceptional- in the time since, helping them to glory in the replacements. Stuart McInally, Gordon Reid, Zander ly hard this week to improve their accura- the English Premiership last season. Scotland got a hiding on their last trip Fagerson, Tim Swinson, Blair Cowan, Sam cy under pressure after a frustrating In an otherwise unchanged back divi- to the newly renamed Principality Hidalgo-Clyne, Duncan Weir, Sean opening game against England,” said sion, Stuart Hogg, Sean Maitland and Stadium, crashing to a 51-3 defeat in Lamont. — AFP France make 6 changes for Ireland clash in 6 Nations PARIS: France made six changes from the side that pipped Italy 23- 21 for the Six Nations match against defending champion Ireland tomorrow. Four newcomers were in the starting lineup against Italy, and squeezed out a win thanks to flyhalf Jules Plisson’s mammoth late kick from 54 meters. Knowing that Ireland will pose a far greater threat in the scrum, France coach Guy Noves changed his props on Thursday - drafting in the less mobile but sturdier Uini Atonio for Rabah Slimani and Jefferson Poirot for Eddy Ben Arous. “Against Italy we did some things well. But in other areas, we were far away from the international level,” Noves said. “We must improve in terms of our defensive play, especially with this Irish armada com- ing.” Yacouba Camara replaced No. 8 Louis Picamoles, and Alexandre Flanquart took the place of Paul Jedrasiak at lock. That meant Damien Chouly, a tryscorer against Italy, took the No. 8 jersey and Camara will play flanker. In the backs, Teddy Thomas replaced Hugo Bonneval on the right wing, and Maxime Mermoz stepped in for Gael Fickou at outside center. France will sorely miss the experience of Picamoles against Ireland. He is likely to miss the rest of the Six Nations after tearing his right hamstring shortly after left winger Virimi Vakatawa’s early debut try against Italy. “We will see if our back row can match up to Ireland,” Noves said. “Yacouba is playing only his second test. Is he up to the challenge? We’ll see.” Bonneval got France’s other try against Italy, but Noves wants to take another look at Thomas - who grabbed a hat trick on ROTTERDAM: Serbia’s Viktor Troicki returns the ball to South Korea’s Hyeon Chung during their second round match of debut against Fiji in November 2014, another try against Australia in the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, Netherlands, yesrterday. — AFP the following test, but then drifted off the scene. “Teddy has a certain talent, I’ve been watching him for the past few months,” Noves said. “He has the chance to make an impression Marin Cilic battles in this young squad. But this doesn’t call into question Hugo’s talent, not at all.” Fickou was absent for personal reasons, and was not on the bench for the match at Stade de France, giving Mermoz another chance to re-ignite his stop-start international career. through in Rotterdam A deceptive runner with good hands, Mermoz played in the 2011 Rugby World Cup final loss to New Zealand, but was never an inte- ROTTERDAM: Marin Cilic fought through Croatian teen Borna Coric 6-3, 5-7, 6-2, the tight situations. I’m always glad to win gral part of incoming coach Philippe Saint-Andre’s plans following to the Rotterdam World Tennis quarter- with the Frenchman saving 10 of 13 break matches like this.” that tournament, and missed last year’s World Cup. — AP finals with a 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (9/7) defeat of points. Cilic was runner-up at the Ahoy In the first round, Spanish sixth seed Luxembourg veteran Gilles Muller yester- stadium two years ago and with the injury Roberto Bautista Agut carried momentum day. pullout of French top seed Richard from his weekend title in Sofia into his Victory in the two-hour meeting sent Gasquet is now considered a top title opening match as he defeated Portugal’s the second-seeded Croatian into a last- favourite at the event which was to have Joao Sousa 7-6 (7/4), 1-6, 6-3. eight battle with Germany’s Philipp also featured Roger Federer, now recover- Bautista Agut, ranked 17th, already Kohlschreiber, a winner over Ivan Dodig of ing from last week’s minor knee surgery. owns two 2016 titles and improved his Croatia 6-4, 6-2. The winner of 14 titles, Cilic said his lev- record to 13-2 since the start of the year. Cilic, the 2014 US Open champion, was el has been improving after playing and He next plays Czech Jiri Vesely. out-aced by the 40th-ranked Muller, nine winning a pair of tough matches this Sousa saved a pair of match points to eight in a match without a single break week. before falling on a third. “It was not an of serve. A pair of French seeds claimed “I played better today than the first easy match,” Bautista Agut said. “I had a wins, with number three Gilles Simon day,” the world number 13 said. “This was bad second set, but in the third I really lift- sending the last Dutchman home with his a very close match-two tiebreakers and no ed my level again. 7-6 (7/5), 6-1 defeat of Robin Haase, who breaks. “There were a lot of rallies and long lost a 4-1 lead in the opening set. “In the second I was returning better points. I’m off to my best start of a season “To be honest Robin deserved to win and got into his service game. But I had to and I hope to keep it up,” said the the first set,” Simon said. “I survived with stay mentally concentrated. I was also Spaniard. LONDON: Australian Wallabies player David Pocock cele- some luck. I was warned because the lucky in the tiebreakers.” “I’ve played well in my last matches brating after winning their semi-final match of the 2015 matches against Robin are always tough.” The Croatian faces Kohlschreiber for and I want to continue like this and get as Rugby World Cup against Argentina at Twickenham Simon will play for a quarter-final place the ninth time, having lost five previous many wins as possible this week.” Stadium in London. Australian Rugby Union chief Bill against German teenager Alexander meetings to the 32nd-ranked German. Jeremy Chardy beat Evgeny Donskoy Pulver said yesterday, he is open to star backrower David Zverev, who beat Canadian Vasek Pospisil “If you can have a couple of tough 6-7 (9/11), 6-4, 7-6 (10/8) after the Russian Pocock taking a sabbatical and is not ruling out any 7-5, 6-2. matches and get through them, you start was inserted into the draw as a lucky loser option that allows him to retain top players. — AFP Gael Monfils, the number five, beat to play better,” Cilic said. “I’ve adjusted to following the pullout of Gasquet. — AFP.