Fired-up Scotland supremo Frank Hadden admitted he admires World Cup minnows Portugal but warned there will no room for sympathy when they clash in the World Cup here on Sunday.

And he challenged his beefed up squad to launch their campaign by giving them a hammering in the Pool C clash.

"I am very respectful of Portugal because their progress has been significant," said Hadden.

"It is very important that we start this game well - I am very aware that in the past, Scotland have not been at their best when favourites and it is not usual for Scotland to be favourites.

"But we now have a different level of power available and I want to see it against Portugal this weekend.

"The gloves are now off - we want to go as far as possible and we just can't wait to get on with it."

Hadden has opted to leave Chris Paterson on the bench for the encounter - giving Glasgow's Dan Parks a chance to stake his claim at stand-off while also filling the goalkicking role.

Scotty Lawson will start as hooker, consigning Ross Ford to the cast of subs - with Marcus Di Rollo returning at centre alongside Rob Dewey after missing the warm-up clashes with Ireland and South Africa.

Hadden said: "As usual, we have picked the team we thing is best equipped to win this particular game - bearing in mind we also want to keep the rest of the squad on their toes."

On the Parks selection, he added: "Dan has trained and played very well and when we all sat down to decide on the team we instantly agreed what we wanted to do for this match - which is not always the case."

SCOTLAND: Rory Lamont, Sean Lamont, Marcus Di Rollo, Rob Dewey, Simon Webster, Dan Parks, Mike Blair, Simon Taylor, Allister Hogg, Jason White (capt), Scott Murray, Nathan Hines, Euan Murray, Scott Lawson, Allan Jacobsen. Reserves: Ross Ford, Gavin Kerr, Scott MacLeod, Kelly Brown, Rory Lawson, Chris Paterson, Hugo Southwell.

PORTUGAL: Pedro Leal, David Mateus, Federico Sousa, Diogo Mateus, Pedro Carvalho, Duarte Cardoso Pinto, Jose Pinto, Vasco Uva (capt), Joo Uva, Juan Severino Somoza, David Penalva, Gonalo Uva, Ruben Spachuck, Joaquim Ferreira, Rui Cordeiro. Reserves: Juan Manuel Mure, Joo Correia, Paulo Murinello, Diogo Coutinho, Luis Pissarra, Pedro Cabral, Miguel Portela.

AFP