SCOTLAND Under-20s captain Rhys Tait insists that self-belief in the squad has not been negatively impacted by recent losses to England [24-41 at home] and Wales [26-13 away]. In fact, he believes that the players have gained confidence from being arguably the better team for the first hour of both those games.
Tait also suggested that a reconstituted Scottish bench for tonight’s clash against France at the DAM Health Stadium could be key to Kenny Murray’s side picking up their first win of this age-grade Six Nations campaign.
“We’ve had a big theme this week about believing,” said the flanker, who is initially from Hawick but is currently a stage three academy player with Glasgow Warriors and aligned to the Boroughmuir Bears Super6 franchise.
“We went 60 minutes against England, and 70 against Wales where we were dominating, so we know we have the potential in the squad to win these games,” he continued. “It is just about executing it and keeping it going for that full 80 minutes.
“It is not a fitness issue with us tailing off, it is just our poor execution towards the tail end of games, so it’s been a big focus this week and hopefully we execute better in the final quarter of the game.
“We have got a good bunch of boys, and there is a lot of potential and a buzz about the squad. We still believe we are good enough to wins these games and a lot of the boys just can’t wait to get stuck in.”
Rudi Brown, who was attached to Watsonians during the last Super6 campaign but has played most of his recent rugby for Hawick in the Premiership, has been added to the bench covering second-row in place of the injured Jack Spurway. Meanwhile, available again Glasgow Hawks duo Tim Brown (back-row) and Thomas Glendinning (wing) also join the match-day 23.
“We’ve got a really strong starting XV, it is just making sure we have that strength in depth,” said Tait. “So, hopefully these boys will come on and bring a lot of energy and physicality because that has been something that we have maybe been lacking towards the end of games.
“A lot of the boys haven’t played too much rugby and the teams we are coming up against have had week-in and week-out rugby for however long, but we believe our guys will really start getting into their stride around round three, so hopefully they will go well in this game,” he concluded.
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