Best suffered a rib injury against France but has recovered in time to take his place in the front row and take on the captaincy in the absence of injured lock Paul O’Connell.

O’Connell is replaced in the starting XV by Donnacha Ryan while Eoin Reddan starts at scrum-half in place of Conor Murray, who bruised his knee joint in the 17-17 draw with France.

The absence of O’Connell, who was handed the captaincy when Brian O’Driscoll was ruled out of the RBS 6 Nations, is covered by the introduction of Mike McCarthy to the squad along with Munster scrum-half Tomas O’Leary.

And Best, who captained Ireland during their 2009 summer tour when O’Connell and O’Driscoll were on British and Irish Lions duty, admits it’s a privilege to stand in once more.

“It's something growing up that you dream of,” he said.

“It's very unfortunate what has happened to Paulie (Paul O'Connell) but I was obviously very honoured when Declan asked me to captain the side.”

Ireland must beat Scotland to keep their title hopes alive and head coach Declan Kidney insist he has full faith in his patched up squad.

“Donnacha and Eoin have been doing a lot of work with us over the past few weeks and will get their chance now,” said Kidney.

“Donnacha was probably unlucky not to get starting in earlier games when we opted to pick Donncha O'Callaghan alongside Paul O'Connell.”

15. Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster)

14. Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)

13. Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster)

12. Gordon D'Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster)

11. Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster)

10. Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary's College/Leinster)

9. Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)

1. Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)

2. Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster)

3. Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster)

4. Donncha O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)

5. Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster)

6. Stephen Ferris (Dungannon/Ulster)

7. Sean O'Brien (Clontarf/Leinster)

8. Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)

Replacements:

16. Sean Cronin (St. Mary's College/Leinster)

17. Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)

18. Mike McCarthy (Buccaneers/Connacht)

19. Peter O'Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster)

20. Tomas O’Leary (Dolphin/Munster)

21. Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)

22. Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)