THE Scotland training squad for the under-21 Six Nations has been revealed, with head coach Sean Lineen including 16 forwards and 13 backs in his 29-strong group.
2019 U20 captain Connor Boyle, of Watsonians Rugby, is one of 11 players who featured in last year’s tournament, during which the flanker scored tries against Italy, Ireland and Wales.
Another player who really made a mark in last year’s tournament was Heriot’s Rugby’s Jack Blain, who also scored three tries last year.
There are several players selected through the Scottish Qualified programme including back-row Archie Smeaton of Yorkshire Carnegie and Sale Sharks prop Ewan Ashman, who is currently on loan at Edinburgh.
Dan Gamble is also selected after coming through the respective age-grade sides and has impressed with his performances for Heriot’s Rugby in the FOSROC Super6 this year.
Biggar’s Jamie Campbell also earns his first U20 inclusion after being part of the U18 Scotland side that defeated Ireland in last year’s Six Nations campaign 42-40.
“We have selected a good group of players and we’re excited to see them progress,” said head coach Lineen.
“This is an important year for the U20 squad and after some good preparations, where we will play two FOSROC Super6 sides in Watsonians Rugby and Ayrshire Bulls in planned sessions, the boys will be ready to face Ireland in the Six Nations opener at the end of January.
“There will still be opportunities to add to the squad throughout January for a number of players who are currently out injured and who impress the coaching staff ahead of the tournament.”
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 here