Gregor Townsend has responded to last weekend’s thrashing at the hands of Wales by making six changes to his Scotland line-up ahead of facing France on Sunday.

The Dark Blues had hopes of making a NatWest 6 Nations title bid this season but got off a dismal start with a 34-7 defeat in Cardiff.

Now Townsend hopes he will get a response after recalling former skipper Greig Laidlaw at scrum-half as well as centre Peter Horne, wing Sean Maitland, prop Simon Berghan, lock Grant Gilchrist and number eight Ryan Wilson.

Ali Price – whose intercepted pass handed Gareth Davies the crucial opening score at the Principality Stadium – makes way for Laidlaw as he is joined on the bench by last week’s starters Jon Welsh, Ben Toolis and Chris Harris. Cornell du Preez and the injured Byron McGuigan drop out of the 23-man squad.

Townsend said: “As a group we’re delighted to be playing at home in front of another sell-out crowd at BT Murrayfield and are looking forward to putting in a performance that can energise our supporters.

“To do that we need to out-work the opposition and be more accurate in a number of aspects of our play.

“We’ve seen a response from the players in training this week and that needs to continue into and through the 80-plus minutes of the match because France will pose a massive and immensely-physical challenge.”