Scotland scrum down against South Africa, later losing 33-0
Scotland under-20 have made three personnel changes to the starting side ahead of their IRB Junior World Championship match against England at the Stadio Comunale di Monigo, Treviso tomorrow night (kick-off 5.10pm BST).
The Scots went down 33-0 to a formidable South Africa side in their opening championship fixture but take confidence from the showing of their Irish counterparts who ran England close in the corresponding Pool fixture on the same night (33-25). Scotland head coach Peter Wright said: “Ireland forced them to make a lot of errors so we have to make sure we put them under just as much pressure; we can do that in defence but the challenge for us is getting our attack working.
“We’ll adopt a similar tactic in this match; we need to keep the game alive. We won’t be looking to take them on physically but we need to keep the ball for longer periods, into the sixth phase, to allow us to manipulate their defence and allow our quick runners to take advantage of any mismatches that are created.”
Wright has been forced to shuffle his backs following the two-match suspension of full-back Stuart Hogg, having being cited for a dangerous tackle on South Africa stand-off Johan Goosen. The change sees Stirling County’s Glenn Bryce switch from the wing to the vacated full-back position (in which he operated during this season’s 6 Nations) and Kerr Gossman come on to the wing from the bench, having impressed as a replacement against the Boks. In the forwards, Mitch Eadie and Hamish Watson come in as a straight swap for Jamie Swanson and Alex Spence in the back-row. Spence drops out of the 22 and Melrose flanker, Grant Runciman, takes the remaining forward slot on the bench while fellow Melrosian Craig Jackson takes the spare back spot following the promotion of Gossman to the 1st XV.
Tuesday 14 June, Stadio Comunale di Monigo, Treviso, Italy (kick-off 5.10pm BST)
Starting XV
15. Glenn Bryce (Stirling County)
14. Sam Atkin (Edinburgh Accies)
13. Mark Bennett (Clermont Auvergne)
12. Danny Gilmour (Stirling County)
11. Kerr Gossman (Glasgow Hawks)
10. Duncan Weir CAPTAIN (Glasgow Warriors)
9. Sean Kennedy (Stirling County)
1. Alex Allan (Loughborough University)
2. David Cherry (Team Northumbria)
3. Colin Phillips (Edinburgh Rugby/Stewart’s Melville)
4. Mitchell Todd (Nottingham)
5. Robert McAlpine (West of Scotland/Glasgow Warriors)
6. Mitch Eadie (Boroughmuir)
7. Hamish Watson (Leicester Tigers)
8. James Tyas (Bath)
Replacements
16. Richard Ferguson (Melrose)
17. George Hunter (Glasgow Warriors/Glasgow Hawks)
18. Robin Hislop (Edinburgh Rugby/Boroughmuir)
19. Jamie Swanson (Boroughmuir)
20. Jamie Stevenson (Westcombe Park)
21. Craig Jackson (Melrose)
22. Grant Runciman (Melrose)