Alan Lorimer

ournament favourites Scotland made a successful start to their Junior World Rugby Trophy campaign at the Nyoha National Stadium in Nairobi in Kenya yesterday morning, but head coach Kenny Murray warned his players that improvements will have to be made – in both attack and defence – if they are to achieve their goal of securing promotion back into the top tier Junior World Championship next year.

A 15-YEAR-OLD Ewan Ashman made no secret of the depth of his despair after Scotland’s heart-breaking World Cup exit at the hands of Australia in 2015.

Outgoing Scotland under-20 head coach, John Dalziel, could not have ended his tenure in a better way than see his charges finish the Georgia-staged World Rugby junior championship in a highest ever fifth position.

The win by the young Scots, only their second over the Wallaby cubs, means that Scotland finished in fifth position, their highest overall placing in the World Rugby under-20 Championship and three places above their previous best.

IT is a rather neat coincidence that Scotland play Australia in the final round of the World Rugby Under-20 Championship in Tbilisi only a day after the the senior side’s impressive and inspirational win over the Wallabies in Sydney.

Scotland highest ever placing in the Rugby World Under-20 Championship, following the young Scots’ victory against Wales on Tuesday, has provided confirmation that the BT Academy system is having a positive effect.

Scotland face Wales today in the penultimate round of the Rugby World Under-20 Championship in Tbilisi knowing that at least one win from their two remaining matches would give the Scots a highest ever finishing place in the global competition.

Scotland will play their fourth and fifth-round matches of the Rugby World under-20 Championship among the fifth to eighth ranked countries after securing a narrow win over Italy in the third and last matches of Pool B in Georgia’s second city of Kutaisi to finish second in their group.

Scotland and Italy face each other today in the third and final pool B match of World Rugby’s under-20 Championship knowing that a bonus point victory could propel the winners of this game into the semi finals of the tournament.

Scotland achieved their first ever win over Ireland at World under 20 Championship level after defeating their celtic cousins in yesterday’s Pool B second round match at a sun-soaked AIA Arena in Georgia’s second city, Kutaisi.