The Brive player impressed as an early replacement for the injured Derrick Lee in the 35-10 defeat to South Africa and retains the number 15 jersey ahead of fit-again Glenn Metcalfe.

Metcalfe, who turned in a man-of-the-match display on his comeback for Glasgow Caledonians against Fiji on Tuesday night, was not considered ready yet for the international arena.

But the New Zealander is one of three back-up additions to the squad along with Cammie Mather and Willie Anderson and will come into contention for the next qualifier against Spain on Saturday week.

The side for the Portugal game shows four changes from the one that started against the Springboks, with Kenny Logan starting on the right wing in place of the unlucky Alan Tait, who drops to the bench.

In the pack, David Hilton takes over at tight head from Paul Burnell in the front row, while New Zealander Martin Leslie starts an international for the first time alongside his brother John.

Leslie replaces Peter Walton on the blindside flank, the Newcastle number eight dropping out of the 22 altogether in order to rest back at his club Newcastle.

Former captain Rob Wainwright and winger Shaun Longstaff are both recalled for bench duty.

Scotland team to play Portugal in Saturday's World Cup European qualifying zone match at Murrayfield:

G Townsend (Brive); K Logan (Wasps), J Mayer (Edinburgh Reivers), J Leslie (Glasgow Caledonians), C Murray (Edinburgh Reivers); D Hodge (Edinburgh Reivers), B Redpath (Edinburgh Reivers, capt); T Smith (Glasgow Caledonians), G Bulloch (Glasgow Caledonians), D Hilton (Bath), S Murray (Bedford), D Weir (Newcastle Falcons), M Leslie (Edinburgh Reivers), E Peters (Bath), B Pountney (Northampton).

Replacements: S Longstaff (Glasgow Caledonians), A Tait (Edinburgh Reivers), G Armstrong (Newcastle Falcons), R Wainwright (Glasgow Caledonians), S Grimes (Glasgow Caledonians), P Burnell (London Scottish), S Brotherstone (Edinburgh Reivers).