GREGOR Townsend has made four changes to the Scotland team that pushed the All Blacks to the limit and beyond in terms of legalities last weekend, but if anything it is a stronger line-up that will face the Wallabies this weekend.

Those returning to familiar roles are Ryan Wilson, the current Glasgow Warriors captain, who has shaken off the shoulder problem which sidelined him last weekend, Grant Gilchrist, a former Scotland captain who is preferred to Australian-born Ben Toolis and Sean Maitland, the 2013 British & Irish Lions winger who proved, playing for his club Saracens last weekend, that he has recovered from an ankle injury.

The other change sees Simon Berghan introduced and while he might seem slightly fortunate to be preferred to Zander Fagerson, it is hard to see much wrong with the logic of keeping club front-row partnerships together when there is little to choose between players individually.

That was part of the explanation the coach offered for the selection at tighthead prop, although the fact that Fagerson is, like clubmate Alex Dunbar, still undergoing the compulsory head injury assessment protocol after last weekend can also be factored in. In that all-Glasgow Warriors front-row group on the bench Fraser Brown replaces another clubmate, George Turner, after getting over the knee injury that ruled him out of the first two matches of the autumn.

As for the other three, Townsend’s reasoning was sound.

“Ryan feels in a much better place physically. He’s trained well,” he said.

“There was a debate and it was a close decision last week on whether he’d be available and the guys who stepped in stepped up well – Cornell (Du Preez) and Luke (Hamilton) – so Ryan now knows it is his opportunity to play well.

“He’s a very important player for us – he’s our vice-captain, he does a lot in attack and defence to help the team be in a winning position and physically he should be in a really good place to play well.

“Lee is unlucky to miss out on the squad but Byron McGuigan has trained very well for us and the fact he can cover other positions in the back-line – he’s played centre and full-back before – gives him an edge this weekend. But Lee has played really well. It has given us a healthy competition in the back three.”

The coach meanwhile believes home advantage is being maximised for his squad by training at the state of the art Oriam facility on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

“It has been great where we are situated,” he said. “This is a world class facility. It has been a big boost to our players.”

That is a marked contrast from the messages coming out of the opposition camp since the Australians were deeply unhappy when the groundsman at Peffermill refused to let them undertake their main training session of the week as they had been scheduled to on Tuesday, because of his concern about damage to the rain-soaked pitch.

Townsend, however, seemed to have little sympathy.

“They had a number of other options I believe.”