Scotland coach Frank Hadden has recalled Chris Cusiter at scrumhalf and changed his entire front row for Sunday's Test against Samoa at Murrayfield.

British and Irish Lion Cusiter comes in for his long-running rival Mike Blair, who started in last week's 23-19 defeat by Argentina. "It is very close at nine," Hadden, said of the switch.

Cusiter was the first choice of previous coach Matt Williams and looked sharp with the Lions in New Zealand.

Allan Jacobsen, Scott Lawson and Craig Smith will start instead of Gavin Kerr, Dougie Hall and Bruce Douglas in the front row.

"I think this says how much confidence we have in our squad," the coach said.

"The front row put down a fantastic marker on Saturday against possibly one of the best scrummaging units in the world. There is strong competition for places."

Hadden replaced all three frontrowers against the Pumas but this time he has selected a bench of four forwards and three backs rather than the 5:2 ratio he favoured on Saturday.

The decision to revert to the more conventional make-up of the bench means Douglas drops out of the 22 and the fast-improving Edinburgh outhalf Phil Godman is brought in.

Godman joined Edinburgh this season after three years learning his trade at Newcastle Falcons, where he played in three different positions in the backs.

Last month he collected the man-of-the-match award when Edinburgh upset Wasps in the European Cup.

"Phil deserves his place on the bench," said Hadden, who gave him his first cap as a replacement against Romania in June.

"He has made huge progress this season. We want to give him the opportunity to see what he can do at the next level."

Hadden said Saturday's defeat, via a late penalty try, had hurt.

"The players and coaches are still smarting from the weekend. I felt we did enough to win the game," he said.

He admitted, however, that the penalty count against Scotland meant victory was always going to be difficult.

"There were some moments of indiscipline from our players," he said.

SCOTLAND (v Samoa): C Paterson; R Lamont, M Di Rollo, A Henderson, S Lamont; D Parks, C Cusiter; A Jacobsen, S Lawson, C Smith; C Hamilton, S Murray; J White (captain), A Hogg, S Taylor. Replacements: D Hall, G Kerr, A Kellock, K Brown, M Blair, P Godman, H Southwell.