Kidney was left to count the cost of Ireland's defeat to England at Dublin last time out with Jonny Sexton (hamstring), Simon Zebo (broken foot), Gordon D'Arcy (foot) and Mike McCarthy (knee) missing the Murrayfield clash.

In their place come 21-year-old fly-half Paddy Jackson, who has been preferred to Ronan O'Gara and will win his first cap, Keith Earls, another debutant Luke Marshall and Donncha O'Callaghan.

In a fifth change by Kidney, Tom Court comes in at prop for the suspended Cian Healy.

Their 12-6 reverse to England leaves Ireland in fourth place in the RBS 6 Nations table as one of four teams with one win and one defeat from their opening two matches.

Scotland are another one of those and they will be buoyed by their emphatic win over Italy in their last fixture but Ireland have not lost at Murrayfield since 2001.

And despite a lengthy injury list, Kidney is convinced there is still all to play for in this year's RBS 6 Nations.

"This Championship is a long way from being over. France are in London next time up and England still have to go to Wales," said Kidney.

"We just have to go about our business in the three matches we have left and see where we end up.

"When we get our own game right we will be in a good position.

"The Grand Slam is a wonderful thing to win, but first and foremost you play for the championship and we're still well in for that.

"What we have now are three more opportunities to get three wins. Let's get to eight points and see where we are at the end of it.

"It was very difficult [to leave out O'Gara], there's no other way to put it but that's the best possible compliment I can give to Paddy.

"[O'Gara] took it like the man that he is. I told him of the decision in the morning and then at training he was training like it was his first training ever training session.

"Most teams pick themselves, sometimes the coach has to make the tight calls, that's what the job is.

"You just have to do what is right for the team. The fact that Paddy and Luke both play of Ulster is a part of the decision but there are a multiplicity of factors, it's not the reason but it's part of it."

Scotland meanwhile, are riding the crest of a wave and after running in four tries against the Azzurri, they are the most potent side in the competition to date with six scored in their opening two matches.

They have made just one change to the side that beat Italy with prop Geoff Cross replacing Euan Murray, who is unavailable as a result of his Christian faith.

And interim head coach Scott Johnson insists their victory over Italy will count for nothing if they can't follow it up when they host Ireland on Sunday.

He said: "Ireland will be here in and they will be ready to play. This will count for nothing if we don't get the next part right.

"Instead of worrying about the woes of the England match we can worry about winning the tournament."

"No one can ever question the passion of the side, the integrity of this team is great, that goes without saying.

"But passion will only get you so far; you need to finish your skill-set off.

"We've got speed to burn and some quality, we've just got to keep doing it. We're back in this tournament. We're in it up to our eyeballs!"