After achieving a historic first win over England last Friday at Broadwood Stadium Scotland under-20s face the challenge of building on this heady start when they play their Welsh counterparts tonight at Parc Eirias in the North Wales coastal town of Colwyn Bay.
Scotland’s task has been made harder by the absence of their two Edinburgh professionals Blair Kinghorn and Jamie Ritchie and the Bath Academy player Adam Hastings, all of whom were very influential in the Scots’ win over England. But Wales, too, have had to rejig their side from that which defeated Ireland 35-24 in Dublin last weekend, with the recall to their regional teams of three of their leading players, Adam Beard, Jarrod Evans and Owen Watkin.
The loss of the Scottish trio allows the under-20s head coach, John Dalziel, to have a look at several other players, important in the context of the Junior World Championship for which a squad a 26 players will be selected. Similarly Jason Strange, the Wales under-20 head coach, will want to assess how other players in his squad perform at this level.
Strange said: “The players called up will benefit from regional rugby and it provides the opportunity for others to step up at this level. Five of our matchday squad are still qualified to play Under 18 rugby so this experience will stand them in good stead going forward.”
Scotland are still missing two of their best front row players in Gala’s Gary Robertson and Melrose’s Dan Elkington, both of whom are expected to be fit for the Junior World Championship in June. And then of course they are without Scotland’s most recently capped player, Zander Fagerson, who made his senior debut off the bench last Saturday, and was key in Scotland’s 36-34 win against Wales at Netherdale a year ago.
All of which might explain why Scotland were second best in the scrums against England last Friday, an area in which Scotland will want to improve tonight. The Scots, however, look to have more line-out power for tonight’s game with the decision to bring in lock Callum Hunter-Hill and move Glasgow Hawks’ Andrew Davidson from second row to the flank.
Last Friday Scotland showed that when they did have ball they used it well to produce exciting back play that tested England. The Scots were also lightning quick in defence and will need to replicate this aspect of their game tonight at Colwyn Bay against a Wales under-20 side that equalled Scotland’s four try tally in their win over Ireland last Friday.
“Scoring four tries away from home is a great platform to build on and we want to continue in that attacking vein this weekend.” stated Strange, adding : “Scotland were excellent last weekend so we have no illusions about the task ahead.”
Wales u20 : R Williams (RGC); E Benham (Cardiff Blues), J Thomas (Ospreys), H Millard (Cardiff Blues), K Giles (Ospreys); D Jones (Scarlets), R Morgan-Williams (Ospreys); C Domachowski (Cardiff Blues), D Hughes (Scarlets), D Lewis (Cardiff Blues), S Lewis-Hughes (Cardiff Blues), B Morgan (Newport Gwent Dragons), T Phillips (Scarlets), S Evans (Scarlets), H Keddie (Newport Gwent Dragons)
Subs I Phillips (Scarlets), R Lewis (Cardiff Blues), L Brown (Newport Gwent Dragons), J Ratti (Ospreys), M Sieniawski (Cardiff Blues), D Smith (Scarlets), B McBryde (Scarlets), J Gage (Ospreys)
Scotland u20 : R Howarth (Gala); D Graham (Hawick), G Taylor (Melrose), T Galbraith (Melrose), R Nairn (Harlequins); R Hutchinson (Northampton Saints), H Fraser (Heriot’s); M McCallum (Heriot’s), J Kerr (Boroughmuir), C Sheldon (Leeds Beckett University), C Hunter-Hill (Stirling County), S Cummings (Glasgow Hawks), A Davidson (Glasgow Hawks), M Smith (Glasgow Hawks), A Miller (Melrose) Subs L Anderson (Ayr), B Christie (Loughborough University), A Nicol (Stirling County),S Ainslie (Currie), S Burnside (Boroughmuir), C Shiel (Currie), C Lines (Boroughmuir), B Robbins (Currie)
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