"Connacht at home are a very good outfit and we are all really looking forward to the challenge."
This weekend, Bates welcomes back internationalists Ross Ford, Bruce Douglas and Opeta Palepoi. As a result, he has made three positional changes which see Scotland A prop Ed Kalman move to loosehead, John Dalziel move to the right of the scrum in the second row and Scotland 7s captain Scott Forrest pulls on the no. 8 jersey.
On the bench, further international sevens experience is featured with former Scotland 7s captain Mark Lee who has been released on permit from Heriot's. Lee could make his Magners League debut alongside Hawick prop Bruce McNeil.
Border Reivers team to play Connacht in the Magners League at Galway Sportsground on Friday 2 March (kick-off 7:30pm)
15 Stuart Moffat
14 Dougie Flockhart
13 Ben MacDougall
12 Nick De Luca
11 Garry Law
10 Gregor Townsend CAPTAIN
9 Rob Chrystie
1 Ed Kalman
2 Ross Ford
3 Bruce Douglas
4 Opeta Palepoi
5 John Dalziel
6 Scott Newlands
7 Andy Miller
8 Scott Forrest
Substitutes
16 Steve Scott
17 Bruce McNeil
18 Mark Lee
19 Richie Vernon
20 Calum Cusiter
21 Steve Jones
22 Bryan Rennie
63x46.png){kind=logo}