Gregor Townsend believes Ali Price is Scotland’s most in-form scrum-half as he explained his decision to start the 31-year-old against Fiji on Saturday.

On Thursday afternoon, Townsend named his starting Scotland XI for their first Autumn Nations Series test at Murrayfield and Price’s inclusion was arguably the biggest surprise. Price hasn’t started for Scotland since the World Cup encounter with Ireland last year but he’s been selected over George Horne

Horne has been in excellent form for a successful Glasgow Warriors side but he’s been omitted from the squad, with clubmate Jamie Dobie preferred on the bench.  Meanwhile, Price has been part of a struggling Edinburgh side but Townsend insists the veteran scrum half deserves to play.

“Ali wasn't in the two nines that we picked a lot during last year's Six Nations,” Townsend admitted. “That was a reflection of George's form and Ben's (White) form. We feel this year Ali has played really well when Edinburgh have gone well.

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“Ali's been playing well in the last two games in particular. George and Jamie are competing really hard with Ben, who will be available for us next week. All four of them have their different attributes and we've gone for Ali because we believe he's in the best form right now. 

“His selection is on merit. I think he looked really refreshed after having a summer off and we've seen that with his performances. His last one against Cardiff was excellent - back to his best form.

“Yes, people obviously have their opinions. Ali is a British and Irish Lion, he's played over 50 caps, so he's a quality player and he's in form. George and Jamie are quality players too, so we have really good depth at night and Ali's got an opportunity this week.”

On whether Horne was unfortunate to miss out, Townsend added: “Whoever misses out is unlucky and George knows what he has to work on. He obviously got the opportunities in the summer, got the opportunities in Six Nations and I'm sure he'll work to get those opportunities again. First and foremost, it's about what we feel is best and strongest this weekend but we are putting plans in place for all of the games in November."