Ross earns chance to justify faith

The Scotland coach Ian McGeechan yesterday announced his team for tomorrow's meeting with South Africa at "Dynamic Earth", the global discovery museum which stands in the shadow of Arthur's Seat.

Scotland have not beaten one of the major southern hemisphere nations for two decades and will try to do so here with Gregor Townsend, who played a key role in the Lions team McGeechan guided to a series win in South Africa in 1997, watching from the replacements' bench.

The dynamism Gordon Ross has shown for Leeds this season has earned the 24-year-old the outside-half berth for Scotland's principal autumn Test – even though, by his own admission, he gave little glimpse of his league form in Scotland's 37-10 win against Romania last Saturday. The one surprise in McGeechan's unchanged starting line-up is the selection of the twice-capped Ross ahead of Townsend, who boasts a Scottish record haul of 67 caps.

"Gordon has been controlling games and I think that's going to be quite important," McGeechan said. "We've got to give him the opportunity to be able to build up experience in an international environment.

"What we need is genuine options, particularly in the key positions. Gregor has not been dropped. We've got two No 1 fly-halves and we're using both." For Ross, though, gaining the No 10 shirt ahead of Townsend represents an investment of faith, plus an opportunity to establish himself ahead of next year's World Cup.

"It's definitely the biggest challenge of my career," Ross said. "This is the sort of thing you dream about: playing against one of the top countries at your home stadium."

SCOTLAND (v South Africa, Murrayfield, tomorrow): Moffat (Glasgow); N Walker (Borders), A Craig (Orrell), B Laney (Edinburgh), C Paterson (Edinburgh); G Ross (Leeds), B Redpath (Sale, capt); T Smith (Northampton), G Bulloch (Glasgow), B Duncan (Borders), S Murray (Edinburgh), S Grimes (Newcastle), M Leslie (Edinburgh), B Pountney (Northampton), S Taylor (Edinburgh). Replacements: S Scott (Borders), D Hilton (Glasgow), N Hines (Edinburgh), J White (Glasgow), G Beveridge (Glasgow), G Townsend (Borders), B Hinshelwood (Worcester).