Edinburgh stand-off Jaco van der Walt will go straight into the Scotland team for his first cap in the Autumn Nations Cup finale against Ireland in Dublin.
The 26-year-old South African-born player qualified through completing his three-year residency earlier this month, and only joined the squad last week after his marriage at the beginning of November and a spell of quarantine.
He replaces Duncan Weir – who drops out of the squad altogether after scoring all Scotland’s points in the 15-22 loss to France – and there are five other changes in the starting line-up.
Duncan Taylor returns at inside centre, Darcy Graham is restored on the wing while Rory Sutherland has recovered from an ankle injury sustained against Italy to start again at loose-head prop.
Zander Fagerson also returns to the starting line-up while Blade Thomson comes into the back row with Hamish Watson rested.
Blair Cowan and Huw Jones make a return after long absences on the bench.
“We’ve been together for the past two months and from a coaching perspective it has been a real joy seeing the group come together and work so hard to improve both individually and collectively,” said head coach Gregor Townsend.
“We are looking forward to facing Ireland in what will be an opportunity to continue our progress away from home once again.”
“We have been impressed with Jaco over the time he has trained with us and we’re excited to see him take the next step into international test match rugby. It will be a tough challenge over in Ireland, given the quality of our opposition and how they will be looking to end 2020 on a positive note.
“Being able to bring back Rory Sutherland after his recent injury is a real boost, and it’s great to involve Blair and Huw for the first time this season.
“If they get on the field, 39 players will have had opportunities to play over the past 5 games, which underlines the current player depth throughout Scottish rugby and shows the competition there is for places now in this Scotland team.”
Team: Stuart Hogg (capt); Darcy Graham, Chris Harris, Duncan Taylor, Duhan van der Merwe; Jaco van der Walt, Ali Price; Rory Sutherland, Fraser Brown, Zander Fagerson; Scott Cummings, Jonny Gray; Blade Thomson, Jamie Ritchie, Matt Fagerson.
Replacements: Stuart McInally, Oli Kebble, WP Nel, Sam Skinner, Blair Cowan, Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, Huw Jones, Sean Maitland.
