Scotland U20s have 'been in some dark places' but Trophy win sets them on path to brighter future
Scotland will be back at the top table of Under-20 men's rugby in 2025
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Rosario in Argentina and Nairobi in Kenya are not venues that jump out at you when you think about the history of Scottish rugby.
For the men’s Under-20s programme, sadly, they have been significant places for the wrong reasons.
In 2019, a 59-34 loss to Fiji in South America relegated Scotland out of the World Rugby Championship and then with no event taking place for the next three years because of the pandemic, July 25th 2023 in Nairobi was due to be the day that Scotland beat Uruguay to progress to the World Rugby Trophy final.
They aimed to get back to the top table at the first attempt but Uruguay put a spanner in the works with a 37-26 win and it meant that the Scots had to wait until this July, on home turf, to finally get the job done.
They beat Samoa by a record score of 123-15 in Pool A at Hive Stadium in Edinburgh and then followed it up by seeing off Hong Kong China 101-0 and Japan 46-10.
That set up a final with Pool B toppers USA and the Scots came through that challenge 48-10 to spark celebrations - and a fair bit of relief - as promotion was secured from the eight-team second tier.
It means Scotland can now look forward to taking on the likes of France, England, Ireland and New Zealand next summer in the top-tier Championship event and head coach Kenny Murray told TRU: “I’m very proud of the players.
“It’s been four games in 15 days and it’s been tough. It takes it out the boys but I think we managed the squad well and I’m really proud of the performances over that time.
“We prepared well for this whole event and I’m pleased with the performance that came versus USA when the boys could have felt the pressure. We scored over 300 points [318] and conceded 32 in the competition and we couldn’t ask for any more than that from the boys.”
How the final panned out…
The first real attack of the game came in the fourth minute when Scotland stand-off Andrew McLean broke out of his own half, passed to winger Geordie Gwynn and then his kick nearly fed the former again, but USA defended it.
Second-row Euan McVie opened the scoring with a try from close range after nine minutes, McLean just missing the conversion.
The Scottish scrum was dominating matters but with the ball in hand, there was some panic at times while USA were defending well and it was still 5-0 at the end of the first quarter.
After 27 minutes, try number two came through centre Johnny Ventisei who ran a lovely line to go over under the posts after an earlier break by scrum-half Conor McAlpine. McLean converted and it was 12-0.
Full-back Corbin Smith missed a long-range penalty for USA before No.8 Tom Currie’s unconverted score for Scotland made it 17-0 at the interval.
Soon after the break, Smith kicked a penalty for USA to make it 17-3 before a try by hooker Jerry Blyth-Lafferty left it at 22-3.
It took Scotland until the 66th minute to score their fifth try against dogged opponents to make sure of the win. Blyth-Lafferty went over for his second of the game and when replacement Jack Hocking converted, it was 29-3.
McVie then scored two tries in the final 10 minutes to complete his hat-trick and replacement Kerr Yule also crossed, Hocking converting two, as it finished 48-10 despite a USA converted try at the death from winger Keelan Farrell.
“Self-belief” gets young Scots through
Since that loss to Fiji in 2019 and the Uruguay reverse last year, the men’s age-grade system in Scotland has taken a real battering from many and Murray has, in recent times, had to face up and front the criticism.
Despite the joy of Wednesday evening though, there are still many things to fix.
For example, with no part-time professional Super6/Series action to come in 2024/25, there are worries about where the best young players on the fringes of the Edinburgh Rugby and Glasgow Warriors squads are going to get meaningful game time - but this squad had a job to do here and they did it.
“We've been in some dark places in the last few years, we've played against some really tough teams though in world events and the Six Nations and that hardens you a bit,” Murray explained.
"The boys have got a lot of self-belief and, in this event, we took that from the first two games. We came out against Japan and scored after half-time, and again against USA we scored the first try after half-time which I felt really deflated them.
“Being well-conditioned was key this time around. We’ve had more of our Under-20 players in the senior academy spots at Edinburgh and Glasgow this last year and I think that’s made a difference.
“We also had a good four or five-week block together before this tournament began and in the big games against Japan and USA, our fitness shone through in the second halves.
“It's a good group of boys and we wanted to do well for Scottish rugby, getting our best young players back at the top table of Under-20 world rugby is so important to us.
“We’ve had a lot of stick over recent times, but we've kept going. A lot of the guys have got great careers ahead of them. There's a lot of guys in this playing group that have got the potential to play pro rugby and go on and play for Scotland.”
It might have been five years in the making but this very much feels like 'job done' for Scotland. They are back at the top table and they are now determined to stay there.
