THE stock value of Scotland under-20 suffered a vertical fall on Saturday as England took advantage of a weaker Scottish selection to wipe out the gains made from the historic win over Australia in last Tuesday’s opening round of the World Championship.
The task now for the Scotland management is to re-inspire their charges ahead of Wednesday’s third and final World Rugby under-20 Pool B match against Italy at the same Manchester City Academy Stadium where England applied the sword so mercilessly.
Head coach, John Dalziel, however, admitted that his pre-tournament plan made it likely that England would win. He said: “Because of the short turnaround between games we have to manage players, so the strategy was around matches one and three.
“That and the injuries we sustained against Australia meant we went into the England game with a lot of positional and personnel changes. We know what we can do but we didn’t perform well last night.
“A lot of the players we brought in are still under-19. This a development competition. We can’t go gung-ho all the time.”
A win for Scotland against Italy and defeat for Australia against England would point to the Scots finishing second in Pool B and, as they did last year, playing in the final two rounds of the tournament in the countries competing for the 5th-8th final positions.
Scotland finished in a highest-ever 8th place in the 2015 World Championship and could better that final position if they can regroup for the next three rounds. It is possible. Last year, after suffering a heavy defeat to New Zealand in the opening round, Scotland went on to gain a losers' bonus point against Ireland before achieving a historic win over Argentina in the final pool match, enough to put them in the 5th-8th countries.
Dalziel should have Glasgow Warriors prop Zander Fagerson available, who was rested for the England game, following his massive effort against the young Wallabies. Dalziel knows that, tempting though it is to use Fagerson all the time, he has to keep player welfare in mind.
“We have to have a managed programme for Zander," Dalziel said. "He’s had a huge amount of rugby this season with club, PRO12, under-20 and senior international. And don’t forget, he’s still a developing player.”
Dalziel is also hoping that Adam Hastings will be fit for Wednesday. The Bath-based playmaker suffered a concussion against Australia and is being assessed on a day-to-day basis.
“Adam has been cleared every day so far and so he’s on track to be ready for Wednesday," Dalziel said. "That’s also the situation with Lewis Wynn.”
Even with Fagerson back there is still concern over the Scotland scrum and especially ahead of the Italy game. Scotland were pummelled at the first scrum on Saturday, resulting in the first of a string of penalties that flowed to England throughout the match.
So dominant was the England forward juggernaut that, for Scottish fans, the scrums became almost unwatchable, knowing that a penalty would inevitably be the conclusion. Is this what rugby is all about?
“There was a lot of trepidation on the part of our new props but we’re confident that our scrum adviser, Eddie Pollock, can get things right," Dalziel added. "It’s not just about the front row. It’s about an eight man technique."
England did not complain, however, as penalties provided their first points, two from penalty kicks by their stand-off Harry Mallinder and a third from a catch and drive try credited to hooker Jack Walker, following a long touch finder from Mallinder after, yes, a scrum penalty.England’s other four tries were all scored in the second half.
If Mallinder had an armchair ride at stand-off then the equally tall Blair Kinghorn had a different experience. The Edinburgh player missed two penalty kicks in the first six minutes and put a restart straight into touch.
“It was difficult for Blair," Dalziel admitted. "He was playing against a team with excellent kickers. He actually did a lot of good things and didn’t get a lot of protection.”
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