Darryl Marfo, up until last year a career fringe player in the English Premiership, will win his first cap for Scotland against Samoa in Gregor Townsend’s first home game as head coach.
The 27-year-old, whose mother was born in Ayr, is the only debutant in the starting XV although there are three more on the bench in hooker George Turner, prop Jamie Bhatti and Newcastle centre/wing Chris Harris.
Marfo was described by his coach Richard Cockerill as originally the fourth choice loose head at Edinburgh this season but injuries to four capped props – Alasdair Dickinson, Allan Dell, Gordon Reid and Rory Sutherland – have cleared a path for the former Bath prop.
Bhatti, up until last season an Academy player, will be the back up on the bench.
Otherwise Townsend has gone much as expected, with WP Nel returning to the team after missing all of last year’s international season. Stuart McNally starts at hooker in an all-Edinburgh front row.
However the entire half-back and three-quarter line are from Glasgow, and there are nine Warriors in the starting team and and further six on the bench.
Murrayfield is just a couple of thousand shot of its 67,000 capacity for the visit of the Samoans, in what will be a record crowd for the fixture.
Team: Stuart Hogg; Tommy Seymour, Huw Jones, Alex Dunbar, Lee Jones; Finn Russell, Ali Price (all Glasgow); Darryl Marfo, Stuart McInally, WP Nel (all Edinburgh); B Toolis (Edinburgh), J Gray (Glasgow); J Barclay (Scarlets, capt), H Watson (Edinburgh), R Wilson (Glasgow).
Replacements: George Turner (Glasgow), Jamie Bhatti (Glasgow), Zander Fagerson (Glasgow), T Swinson (Glasgow), Cornell du Preez (Edinburgh), Henry Pyrgos (Glasgow), Peter Horne (Glasgow), Chris Harris (Newcastle).
