Gregor Townsend has named his team to face Wales in the opening round of the Guiness Six Nations at the Principality Stadium on Saturday evening.

The Scotland head coach has unsurprisingly named one of his two co-captains Finn Russell in his usual position while there were doubts over Rory Darge for this one, and he will have to wait to get a taste of the action after being left out to continue his recovery. Kyle Rowe is set to earn just his second international cap after being named at full back with Kyle Steyn and Duhan van der Merwe on the wings.

It's an all Glasgow Warriors centre partnership with Huw Jones and Sione Tuipulotu named there, with the latter taking on the role of vice captain for the match. Ben White is also in the team despite injury fears but Blair Kinghorn has been ruled out for the first two matches of the championship due to a knee injury.

Jamie Ritchie lost out on the captaincy having held it during the World Cup but he’s another player named as a vice captain and takes his place alongside Luke Crosbie and Matt Fagerson in the back row. George Turner is in at hooker while Zander Fagerson and Pierre Schoeman also start. Richie Gray will play in his 11th Six Nations having made his debut as far back as 2010 and he’s joined by Scott Cummings in the second row.

There’s likely to be a couple of debutants from the bench with tighthead Elliot Millar-Mills included along with loosehead Alec Hepburn. It’s a 5-3 split among the replacements with Ewan Ashman, Sam Skinner and Jack Dempsey providing forward cover and George Horne, Ben Healy and Cam Redpath completing the lineup.

FULL TEAM: Schoeman, Turner, Z Fagerson, Gray, Cummings, Crosbie, Ritchie, M Fagerson, White, Russell, Van der Merwe, Tuipulotu, Jones, Steyn, Rowe