ARGENTINA U20s 41
ARGENTINA U20s 41
scotland U20s 21
Scotland finished in their familiar 10th position after losing yesterday's play-off match at North Harbour.
The young Scots can congratulate themselves on defending top-tier status for next year's tournament in Italy, despite the baggage of a domestic age-grade system ill-tailored to meet the demands of international competition.
The vital match for the Scots was the fourth round game against next year's hosts, Italy, which Scotland won 21-18. "I'm delighted for the players to get that win because it keeps us in the top tier and that's the main thing to get out of this," said Sean Lineen, the Scotland Under-20 head coach.
Lineen, however, alluded to the lack of intensity in domestic competition and the sheer lack of numbers in Scottish rugby. "We got five games in 19 days and our guys are simply not prepared for that," he said. "You've got to be robust to get through this period and the guys gave everything. Heart-wise they got stuck in but it really does test the strength and the depth of your squad."
By contrast, England - they triumphed in dramatic fashion with a 21-20 win over South Africa in yesterday's JWC final at Eden Park to take a second successive title - have a squad of players all of whom have come through the mill of the top-level English academies that exposed them to intense competition, often in the Aviva Premiership. That same intensity in preparation is apparent in Wales, Ireland and France in the northern hemisphere, and south of the equator in South Africa and New Zealand.
Of course, because of low overall numbers in the Scottish game and the diminution of competitive sport in state schools, Scotland will always struggle in age-grade rugby, but if the 2014 JWC in New Zealand does not sound yet another warning about the need for academies then Scottish rugby must be congenitally deaf.
The positive for this Scotland squad is that 12 players will be eligible for selection next season and with an encouraging display from this season's under-18s the Scots should be more competitive in the next JWC.
That will mean little though, to the current Scotland squad who suffered their 11th defeat this season with their latest loss to Argentina yesterday.
The young Scots, however, can take credit for scoring three tries to Argentina's four, with touchdowns from No.8 Magnus Bradbury, replacement flanker Shaun MacDonald and full-back Gavin Lowe. Hutchinson converted the first two tries and Lowe his own.
Elsewhere, New Zealand claimed third place by beating Ireland 45-23, Australia won the fifth place play-off against France with a 34-27 victory, Wales were seventh after beating Samoa 20-3 and Fiji are relegated after losing 22-17 to Italy.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article