Gilchrist To Make Scotland Debut

Grant Gilchrist, the 22-year-old Edinburgh Rugby lock, will win his first cap for Scotland in Saturday’s final 2013 RBS 6 Nations Championship match against France in Paris.Gilchrist, the 6ft 8ins product of the Alloa and Stirling County clubs, replaces the injured Richie Gray. The only other change to the starting line-up sees the experienced Alasdair Strokosch preferred to Rob Harley at blindside flanker. Strokosch had started the championship in the number six jersey but injury in the opening match against England at Twickenham sidelined him from Scotland’s next three outings.Gilchrist, a winner of the 2011 John Macphail Scholarship which saw him play club rugby in New Zealand was an unused replacement on the bench when Scotland lost to Tonga in Aberdeen in November.He told www.scottishrugby.org : It’s a very special moment. It’s a massive opportunity for me and I just can’t wait for Saturday.Scotland interim head coach Scott Johnson said: We have made some progress in this championship and it would be ideal to cement that by a winning performance in Paris. But the needle is stuck in the same groove as far as my view on Saturday’s Test.  Scotland team to play FranceStade de France, Paris on Saturday (kick-off 8pm GMT)15 Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors) 14 caps14 Sean Maitland (Glasgow Warriors) 4 caps13 Sean Lamont (Glasgow Warriors) 75 caps12 Matt Scott (Edinburgh Rugby) 11 caps11 Tim Visser (Edinburgh Rugby) 9 caps10 Duncan Weir (Glasgow Warriors) 4 caps9 Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh Rugby) vice-captain, 17 caps1 Ryan Grant (Glasgow Warriors) vice-captain, 9 caps2 Ross Ford (Edinburgh Rugby) 67 caps, 2 tries3 Euan Murray (Worcester Warriors) 52 caps, 2 tries4 Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh Rugby) uncapped5 Jim Hamilton (Gloucester) 45 caps6 Alasdair Strokosch (Perpignan) 31 caps7 Kelly Brown (Saracens) captain, 56 caps8 Johnnie Beattie (Montpellier) 20 capsSubstitutes16 Dougie Hall (Glasgow Warriors) 41 caps17 Moray Low (Glasgow Warriors) 17 caps18 Geoff Cross (Edinburgh Rugby) 20 caps19 Alastair Kellock (Glasgow Warriors) 51 caps20 Ryan Wilson (Glasgow Warriors) 1 cap21 Henry Pyrgos (Glasgow Warriors) 5 caps22 Ruaridh Jackson (Glasgow Warriors) 19 caps23 Max Evans (Castres) 34 caps  Weve got to get our basics right. Weve got to win the contact area, be disciplined in our approach, and get some front-foot ball for our backs. We also want to end the championship on a high.Ive been impressed with Gilcho. Ive spoken of form and future and he fits the bill in the latter category but he’s also keen as mustard and we want to look at him in the company of a very good French side.We looked at every position in detail after last weekend and we reckoned that Strokosch’s experience gave him the nod in the back-row.Were not reading much at all into where France are in the table. France are wounded right now and we expect them to come out all guns blazing on Saturday.But the target for us is to concentrate on our game and aim to be as high up the table as possible come full-time in Paris.Not considered due to injury: Alasdair Dickinson and Richie Gray (Sale Sharks), Chris Cusiter and Chris Fusaro (both Glasgow Warriors), David Denton and Ross Rennie (both Edinburgh Rugby) and Tom Heathcote (Bath Rugby).Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales). Assistant referees: George Clancy (Ireland) and Lourens Van Der Merwe (South Africa). TMO: Carlo Damasco (Italy)a