FOUR days after their historic win over Australia, Scotland face another difficult Pool B match when they take on the host nation, England, at the Manchester City Academy Ground in round two of the World Rugby under-20 Championship.
The Scots will go into this game minus three front line players, after injuries ruled out Darcy Graham and Rory Hutchinson for the remainder of the tournament and Adam Hastings for at least one match.
As a consequence coach John Dalziel has been forced to rejig his backline with Blair Kinghorn taking over at stand-off and the Melrose midfielder George Taylor starting at outside centre. Powerful runner Robbie Nairn is on the wing for his first game since recovering from a foot injury, Cameron Gray comes in for his first cap, and in an interesting move Ben Robbins fills the full-back berth.
In the forwards Zander Fagerson is rested as is Alex Craig, who had an impressive stint off the bench against Australia. “We’ve always considered the tight turnaround between the first two games, especially taking into account the physicality of both Australia and England, and we’re fortunate in that we’ve been able to bring in five players who started regularly in the Six Nations,” said head coach, John Dalziel.
For England the short four-day turnaround will not impact in the same way. For a start, England had a comparatively easy game against Italy, running out 48-10 winners.
But the other point is that England have strength in depth and can afford to make changes without greatly affecting the quality of their team.
Scotland, however, can take much from their 24-6 win over England at Clyde’s Broadwood Stadium where the Scots shocked the auld enemy by running in four tries and preventing their opponents from crossing the Scotland line.
That was then. Four months on from that Six Nations under-20 Championship match, England have beefed up their squad with a number of Premiership players who were not released by their clubs back in February. Moreover, England have a new and inspirational mentor in the former Bath and England player Martin Haag.
England, too, will revel in the experience of playing at home in front of what is expected to be a full house. The challenge facing Scotland is huge and meeting it will depend both on how well the Scots players have recovered after an energy sapping performance against Australia, and equally how well the less experienced newcomers cope with such a high profile game.
The Scotland v England match is the third billing today at the Manchester City Academy Stadium. First up is the clash of New Zealand and Ireland, both winners in round one of the championship. Then Wales, the Six Nations under-20 grand-slam title winners, take on Georgia. Meanwhile, Australia have a chance to recover from their defeat to Scotland when they take on Italy today.
Scotland under-20 : B Robbins (Currie); R Nairn (Harlequins), G Taylor (Melrose), T Galbraith (Melrose), C Gray (Currie); B Kinghorn (Edinburgh), H Fraser (Heriot’s); D Elkington (Melrose) J Kerr (Boroughmuir), C Skeldon (Leeds Beckett Univ), C Hunter-Hill (Stirling County), S Cummings (Glasgow Warriors)(captain), S Burnside (Heriot’s), J Ritchie (Edinburgh), A Miller (Melrose) Replacements L Anderson (Ayr), G Thornton (Bishop Burton College), M McCallum (Heriot’s), M Smith (Glasgow Hawks), C Shiel (Currie), M McPhillips (Currie), R Norville (Hartpury College)
England under-20 : D Atkins (Bath Rugby); S Aspland-Robinson (Harlequins), J Marchant (Harlequins), J Williams (London Irish), M Gallagher (Saracens); H Mallinder (Northampton Saints), M Green (Yorkshire Carnegie); T West (Wasps), J Walker (Yorkshire Carnegie) captain, B Walker (Saracens), S South (Harlequins), H Taylor (Worcester Warriors), G Nott (Sale Sharks), W Evans (Leicester Tigers), C Chick (Newcastle Falcons) Replacements ; J Singleton (Worcester Warriors), L Boyce (Yorkshire Carnegie), W Stuart (Wasps), A Kitchener (Worcester Warriors), Z Mercer (Bath Rugby), H Randall (Gloucester Rugby), M Malins (Saracens), O Thorley (Gloucester Rugby)
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