Scotland U20 team announced for final pool match

23 Jul 2023

After a 40-13 victory in the World Rugby U20 Trophy against USA on Thursday, Scotland U20 Head Coach Kenny Murray has named his team to face Uruguay in the final pool match of the tournament on Tuesday 25 July (kick off 2pm BST, 4pm local time).

With only one point separating Scotland and Uruguay in pool A, the result of Tuesday’s match will determine who will face pool B’s table leader in the play-off decider as teams vie for promotion to the U20s Championship.

The front row sees Craig Davidson return to the loose-head position, this time joined by Oliver Minnis who will earn his first start for Scotland U20 at tight-head. Corey Tait joins the front trio, retaining the starting hooker jersey for another game. Ruaraidh Hart makes his first start of the World Rugby U20 Trophy campaign when he joins Eddie Erskine in the second row. There’s no change to the back row as co-captain Liam McConnell and Jonny Smith as flankers and Jonny Morris completes the forward pack at Number 8.

Co-captain Ben Afshar (who scored half of Scotland’s total points against USA himself) remains at scrum-half joined once again by Andrew McLean at stand-off.

The backs remain completely unchanged with Finn Douglas and Logan Jarvie once again taking on the wings. Findlay Thomson and Ben Salmon continue their centre partnership with Dan King completing the starting 15 at full back.

A five-three split completes the bench with Finn Duraj, Mx Surry, Callum Norrie, Jake Parkinson and Sam Derrick covering the forwards and Finlay Burgess, Kerr Johnston and Matt Reid in place to support the backs.

Head Coach Kenny Murray said: “We have had a couple of good wins under our belt now, but we must keep this up if we want to end up in the first place play-offs on Sunday.

“We took some key learnings from the first half of our game against USA which we not only put into place in the second half of that game, but we’ll take into our next game against Uruguay.

“Uruguay are a very strong team up front with some excellent ball carriers, so we must be very clinical with our strategy and game-plan.”

Scotland U20 team to face Uruguay U20 at Nyayo National Stadium, Nairobi, Kenya on Tuesday 25 July (kick off 2pm BST, 4pm local time)

15. Dan King (Heriot’s Rugby)

14. Logan Jarvie (Stirling Wolves/Glasgow Warriors)
13. Ben Salmon (Stirling Wolves/Glasgow Warriors)
12. Findlay Thomson (Watsonians)
11. Finn Douglas (Southern Knights/Edinburgh Rugby)

10. Andrew McLean (Boroughmuir Bears)
9. Ben Afshar (Ayrshire Bulls) CO-CAPTAIN

1. Craig Davidson (Watsonians)
2. Corey Tait (Boroughmuir Bears)
3. Oliver Minnis (Hartpury University)
4. Eddie Erskine (Bath Rugby/Bath University)
5. Ruaraidh Hart (Stirling Wolves/Glasgow Warriors)
6. Liam McConnell (Boroughmuir Bears/Edinburgh Rugby) CO-CAPTAIN
7. Jonny Smith (Harlequins)
8. Jonny Morris (Watsonians/Glasgow Warriors)

Replacements

16. Finn Duraj (Watsonians)
17. Max Surry (Cardiff Met University)
18. Callum Norrie (Stirling Wolves/Glasgow Warrirors)
19. Jake Parkinson (Ealing Trailfinders)
20. Sam Derrick (Southern Knights)
21. Finlay Burgess (Stirling Wolves/Edinburgh Rugby)
22. Kerr Johnston (Boroughmuir Bears/Glasgow Warriors)
23. Matt Reid (Watsonians)