Back-to-back wins over France and England at BT Murrayfield have earned all but one of the starting XV the opportunity to take their home form on the road, with Glasgow Warriors wing Tommy Seymour an injury-enforced change to the back division, having failed to recover sufficiently from the back injury sustained in the national team's Calcutta Cup win.
In-form Edinburgh Rugby back Blair Kinghorn will earn his first start for the national team on the wing in place of Seymour, with Glasgow Warriors wing Lee Jones taking his vacated place on the bench.
Townsend has made one further change to the replacements bench, with Glasgow Warriors hooker Fraser Brown - who featured in all but two Scotland Tests last year - returning from injury to replace Scott Lawson.
Scotland Head Coach, Gregor Townsend, said: "We were delighted with the result against England and backing up our win against France with an improved performance.
"The intent we showed in attack and defence in the first half was very encouraging and we continued to work hard in the second-half. The effort that went into denying England a second try in the closing minutes was great to see.
"Our players had prepared very well for the challenge of taking on England and there has been a similar focus and commitment this week at training.
"There are a few areas of our game that we are working to improve and we are aware that we will have to be better if we are to beat a very good Ireland side in Dublin."
Scotland
15 Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors)
14 Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh Rugby)
13 Huw Jones (Glasgow Warriors)
12 Peter Horne (Glasgow Warriors)
11 Sean Maitland (Saracens)
10 Finn Russell (Glasgow Warriors)
9 Greig Laidlaw VICE CAPTAIN (Clermont Auvergne)
1 Gordon Reid (London Irish)
2 Stuart McInally (Edinburgh Rugby)
3 Simon Berghan (Edinburgh Rugby)
4 Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh Rugby)
5 Jonny Gray (Glasgow Warriors)
6 John Barclay CAPTAIN (Scarlets)
7 Hamish Watson (Edinburgh Rugby)
8 Ryan Wilson VICE CAPTAIN (Glasgow Warriors)
Substitutes
16 Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors)
17 Jamie Bhatti (Glasgow Warriors)
18 Willem Nel (Edinburgh Rugby)
19 Tim Swinson (Glasgow Warriors)
20 David Denton (Worcester Warriors)
21 Ali Price (Glasgow Warriors)
22 Nick Grigg (Glasgow Warriors)
23 Lee Jones (Glasgow Warriors)