As expected, Richie Vernon, the Sale Sharks back row, comes in for John Barclay, who is heading home to prepare for his wedding, but head coach Andy Robinson has also promoted Chris Cusiter and Sean Lamont from the bench to the starting 15 at scrum-half and wing respectively.

That means Mike Blair and Max Evans drop out of the starting line-up, though both are expected to feature on the bench when it is named today, with Robinson explaining it was not so much a case of them having done anything wrong, but more because of a need to counter the big-hitting physicality of Samoa.

"Chris Cusiter has had a really good impact off the bench, so we have given him a start," the coach said. "He has done well and the competition between the two players [Cusiter and Blair] has been really close. They are both playing good rugby at the moment.

"For Sean, we will need to establish some real go-forward against the big hitters in the Samoan team. We think Sean will give us that. With the number of big hitters in their team, we think Sean will give us another impact runner."

Almost all the squad were able to train despite the bumps and bruises that followed their win over Fiji. Alasdair Strok-osch was restricted to some light work on the sidelines, as was Euan Murray, and both will be given fitness tests tomorrow – which Robinson says he is confident they will pass – to confirm their availability for Saturday's game.

Scotland: S Hogg (Glasgow); S Lamont (Scarlets), N De Luca (Edinburgh), M Scott (Edinburgh), T Visser (Edinburgh); G Laidlaw (Edinburgh), C Cusiter (Glasgow); R Grant (Glasgow), R Ford (C) (Glasgow), E Murray (Newcastle), A Kellock (Glasgow), R Gray (Glasgow), A Strokosch (Gloucester), R Rennie (Edinburgh), R Vernon (Sale).