The 29-year-old was surprisingly omitted from Frank Hadden’s side for the championship opener against France on Sunday.

After Scotland’s heavy home defeat to the French, Paterson comes in for the injured Rory Lamont at full-back, and Kelly Brown replaces Dave Callam at number eight.

Paterson will make his 83rd appearance, nudging ahead of Gregor Townsend in the all-time list to become Scotland’s most-capped back, while lock Nathan Hines wins a 50th cap.

Head coach Hadden takes his side to face a team who beat England at Twickenham last Saturday.

But Hadden said: “We believed last week we could win in Cardiff and that still remains the case.

“Obviously we’ve had a dent to our confidence but the squad are now doubly determined to travel to Wales and battle for everything we can get to win on Saturday.”

Scotland team to face Wales in RBS 6 Nations on Saturday in Cardiff:

C Paterson (Gloucester); N Walker (Ospreys), N De Luca (Edinburgh), A Henderson (Glasgow Warriors), S Webster (Edinburgh); D Parks (Glasgow Warriors), M Blair (Edinburgh); A Jacobsen (Edinburgh), R Ford (Edinburgh), E Murray (Northampton Saints), N Hines (Perpignan), J Hamilton (Leicester Tigers), J White (Sale Sharks, captain), J Barclay (Glasgow Warriors), K Brown (Glasgow Warriors).

Substitutes: F Thomson (Glasgow Warriors), G Kerr (Edinburgh), S MacLeod (Llanelli Scarlets), A Hogg (Edinburgh), C Cusiter (Perpignan), G Morrison (Glasgow Warriors), H Southwell (Edinburgh).