LEEDS, UK (USA Rugby Release) – USA Men's Eagles Head Coach Mike Tolkin has made one change to the starting XV that opened Rugby World Cup 2015 Pool B play against Samoa for Sunday's match against Scotland.

Scotland defeated Japan Wednesday to move to the top the pool ahead of the encounter at Elland Road. Scheduled for a 9am ET kickoff, the match is the Eagles' second against Scotland in 15 months, having dropped a test in Houston in 2014.

Try-scorer in the loss to Samoa, captain Chris Wyles resumes his role at full back following two consecutive matches on the wing, moving Blaine Scully to the touch line opposite Taku Ngwenya.

Phil Thiel gets the start at hooker, replacing Zach Fenoglio, who helped provide a stable scrum for 50 minutes. Chris Baumann scored his first international try in front of a pro-U.S. crowd at Brighton Community Stadium at the weekend, and will be available as front row cover alongside Fenoglio and Olive Kilifi.

"The scrum was once again a good platform of attack and the lineout had a few hiccups, which was unfortunate as it cost us on four occasions [against Samoa]," Tolkin said. "Fenoglio's logged a lot of minutes as starter [throughout the summer] and Thiel is a little fresher.

"They are both very good and virtually even, so we thought this was a good time to get Phil in as a starter and have Zach add punch in off the bench."

The big bodies of Danny Barrett, Cam Dolan, and John Quill also provide Tolkin with options from the bench, while the creativeness of Folau Niua and Shalom Suniula could open a tired Scotland defense.

The two-try output against Samoa bests the previous matchup in San Jose earlier this summer, but the Eagles were unable to dot down for a five-pointer last year against their upcoming opponent.

Wyles kicked two penalties as the humid Texas heat kept a fluid attack from forming throughout the match. For the victors, scrum half and captain Greig Laidlaw converted all three Scotland tries and successfully kicked a penalty goal.

"We have the capability to do some dynamic things with ball in hand, with both power and pace," Tolkin said. "We'd like to be able to make this a more consistent, potent weapon. Scotland, like everyone, has weaknesses and we need to exploit them effectively with both of those tools.

"Last summer, we played them first up in the test series with many players who had not played much rugby prior to that match, so we didn't have attacking rhythm and confidence, which we showed more of in the next two matches."

Universal Sports will provide the high-definition broadcast coverage of Sunday's match beginning at 9 a.m. ET. Match coverage can also be found on Twitter via @USARugby.

USA Lineup to face Scotland
1. Eric Fry
2. Phil Thiel
3. Titi Lamositele
4. Hayden Smith
5. Greg Peterson
6. Al McFarland
7. Andrew Durutalo
8. Samu Manoa
9. Mike Petri
10. AJ MacGinty
11. Blaine Scully
12. Thretton Palamo
13. Seamus Kelly
14. Takudzwa Ngwenya
15. Chris Wyles (C)

USA Reserves
16. Zach Fenoglio
17. Olive Kilifi
18. Chris Baumann
19. Cameron Dolan
20. John Quill
21. Danny Barrett
22. Shalom Suniula
23. Folau Niua

Men's Eagles | Rugby World Cup 2015
v. Samoa - L 25-16
v. Scotland - Sunday, Sept. 27 - 9:30 a.m. ET
v. South Africa - Wednesday, Oct. 7 - noon ET
v. Japan - Sunday, Oct. 11 - 3 p.m. ET