Under-20 International: When Ireland met France two weeks ago Eric Elwood experienced his first defeat since taking on the job of Irish under-20s coach last season.

Ireland v Scotland Venue: Dubarry Park Kick-off: 7.30

Today he hopes and expects that the team will return to winning ways when they face Scotland. In that light the former Irish outhalf has made three changes and one positional switch to the side that lines out tonight in Athlone.

Two of the personnel changes are in the pack, with Jason Harris-Wright coming in at hooker for Stephen Douglas and James Sandford replacing David Nolan. Both starting players came off the bench against France and did enough to impress Elwood. Nolan and Douglas are named as replacements.

The third change sees Kris Greene replaced by Queen's University scrumhalf Ian Porter. Greene suffered a significant injury in training and will be out for the rest of the season.

The positional switch is in the back three, where David Kearney and Shane Scanlon swap positions. Kearney moves to fullback from the right wing and Scanlon takes over on the flank. Outside centre Eoin O'Malley is again in the thick of the Irish attack, having been called up to the Leinster bench last week for their Magners League match.

"The game against France was another notch up with regards to the level of performance. But in the end it just got away from us after the guys battled hard to get back into the game against what was a very good French side," said Elwood this week. "We have made some changes to the side as both Jason (Harris-Wright) and James (Sandford) played well when they came off the bench and have forced themselves into the team on the back of that."

The challenge for the Irish side is to again raise their game to beat a Scotland side that has lost their first two games.

IRELAND: D Kearney (Lansdowne); S Scanlon (UCC), E O'Malley (Old Belvedere), EA Sheridan (Lansdowne), C Cochrane (QUB); M Dufficy (TCD), D Moore (Blackrock); P Karaviannis (QUB), J Harris-Wright (Greystones), B Barclay (UCD), J Sandford (QUB), E Sherriff (Lansdowne), K Essex (UL Bohemians), P Ryan (Blackrock), P Mallon (Lansdowne). Replacements: S Douglas (Ballymena), S Archer (UCC), D Nolan (Galwegians), I Nagle (UCC), I Porter (QUB), I Madigan (Blackrock), C Cleary (Greystones).