Scotland made hard work of their opening 2025 Six Nations match at home to Italy last weekend and although they did play some excellent rugby and got the bonus point win they will need to improve in key areas to get a result against Ireland this weekend.
There were strong performances across the park with plenty of players doing more than enough to ensure they kept a hold of their starting jerseys. Nobody was disappointing enough that they deserved to be dropped but we may see a few tactical switches to give their opponents something to think about.
Here is our predicted Scotland XV to face Ireland at Murrayfield this weekend in the second round of the 2025 Six Nations Championship:

1. Pierre Schoeman
No surprise that Townsend will want his strongest available front row starting this game starting with the Edinburgh loose-head | SNS Group

2. Dave Cherry
Was selected for his experience against Italy and was one of Scotland's best players on the day so dropping him in favour of Ashman now would seem harsh | SNS Group / SRU

3. Zander Fagerson
Just like Schoeman at 1, Scotland's undisputed best tight-head and will need to be at his best against a dominant Irish front row | SNS Group

4. Jonny Gray
Looked a bit rusty at times against the Italians but if he has shaken that off now then could be a valuable asset, particularly in defence, for Townsend | SNS Group