GREGOR Townsend, the Scotland head coach, has stuck with the tried and tested with his team to try to get revenge over Wales. Though there are 11 changes from the side that hammered Argentina in the final match of the summer tour, there are strong links with the side that played in Wales nine months ago.

Townsend has changed eight players compared with the team that launched the Six Nations. Some might not have made the team anyway but all were unavailable because they play in England and are barred from playing this match outside the international window or because they are injured.

Three of those who keep their places, Allan Dell and Stuart McInally in the front row plus Adam Hastings at fly-half, also keep their positions while Blair Kinghorn switches from wing to full-back to cover the ankle injury suffered by Stuart Hogg.

It makes it a real opportunity for Hastings to show not only that he is a realistic understudy to Finn Russell in the No.10 jersey but that he has the capacity to challenge the man who has been a shoo-in for the job for the last three years.

"His experience in Argentina and how he played has got to be in his muscle memory," Townsend suggested. "He will realise that the next time he gets to play at international level he can do similar things and they will work out okay.

"This is a big challenge this week; it is Wales, it is away, they are huge favourites, I would imagine, but if he plays really well that does make it a much more competitive position.

"He is playing really well for Glasgow, he has played Champions Cup games – that was a big test for him, Saracens, and I thought he played really well. A week later in Cardiff, he was really proactive in how he played and took on the Cardiff defence – when you get a bonus point victory, the stand-off is going to be a huge part of that."

Which is a long way from saying that Russell is going to have to struggle to get back for the second game against Fiji, but it does offer a vote of confidence that Townsend feels he is no longer totally dependent on Russell's fitness for quality at fly-half. Townsend added he had not ruled out the two pairing up in the same team.

There are a number other targets in the game, one being to try to get rid of the suggestion that Scotland struggle to play away from home, though the idea was enough to make Townsend bristle.

"I don’t believe it’s a problem with being on the road," he insisted. "We’ve won in Sydney and won in Resistencia [Argentina]. The issue is underperformance when we’ve gone in as favourites, more often away from home.

"It's about how we approach the week, the messages we give the team, team selection – on a few of those games I mentioned we did change things up, the Fiji game and USA game come to mind.

"Those are coaching lessons. The playing group has to realise that we have to drive certain things when we are favourites, we can’t take the foot off.

"It has been great that we have risen up and taken on the best teams in the world and played our best rugby – whether it is Australia, New Zealand or England – but we have got to do that every time we play."

At least going in as favourites is unlikely to be the problem this week that it was in February when Scotland were coming off a strong Autumn series and Wales had lost a dozen first-choice players to injury.

That is reflected in the selection, after allowing for the absence of the Exile players who are barred from taking part. There are few experiments that are not forced on Townsend, though he has picked Ben Toolis ahead of Grant Gilchrist at lock and Jamie Ritchie slots in at flanker for only his third cap, though Townsend made it clear Magnus Bradbury would probably have started had he not dislocated a shoulder.

Five players who started the last game drop to the bench – including Fraser Brown who played flanker in Argentina but reverts to his usual role as hooker – while there is also a place for uncapped Darcy Graham, the Edinburgh wing, who was initially called up only to train with the squad and was promoted to a full member only at the start of this week.

"His rugby ability makes him hard to tackle, skilful in the air," Townsend explained. "It’s more his approach in the past few games where he’s taken it to the opposition, been aggressive in defence, won a couple of turnovers and looked to get on the ball. That’s the mindset we need when we go to these challenging places like Cardiff this weekend."

Scotland (v Wales): B Kinghorn (Edinburgh); T Seymour (Glasgow Warriors), H Jones (Glasgow Warriors), A Dunbar (Glasgow Warriors), L Jones (Glasgow Warriors); A Hastings (Glasgow Warriors), A Price (Glasgow Warriors); A Dell (Edinburgh), S McInally C (Edinburgh), W Nel (Edinburgh), B Toolis (Edinburgh), J Gray (Glasgow Warriors), J Ritchie (Edinburgh), H Watson (Edinburgh), R Wilson (Glasgow Warriors). Replacements: F Brown (Glasgow Warriors), A Allan (Glasgow Warriors), S Berghan (Edinburgh), G Gilchrist (Edinburgh), M Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors), G Horne (Glasgow Warriors), P Horne (Glasgow Warriors), D Graham (Edinburgh).