Young Scots chase strong finish in Junior World Championship

Fergus Pringle’s charges have impressed in wins over Italy and Japan, although the spirit and skill shown in defeat to New Zealand was arguably their performance of the tournament to date.

A runners-up spot in Pool B has owned much to the contribution of a squad but as ever, some stellar individual showings have helped. Jake Dalziel sits fourth on the overall tournament points list with 34; Harvey Preston (29) and Henry Kesterton (27) are both at the upper end of the tackling charts; and Dan Kelly’s six clean breaks the joint-third in that metric across all players.

Pictured: Ollie Blyth-Lafferty going over for Scotland U20s’ third try against Japan in their final Pool B fixture

Scotland will next face Argentina in those 5^th-8^th play-offs on Sunday afternoon at the Avchala Stadium in Tbilisi, with the final fixture of a packed schedule to then come on Friday 17 July against either Australia or Wales to determine final placings.

For context, the highest Scotland U20 have finished at a Junor World Championship was in 2017 when, under the tutelage of John Dalziel, a team boasting future full caps Matt Fagerson, Darcy Graham, Blair Kinghorn and Stafford McDowall, finished in fifth place.

You can watch Scotland U20 in action against Argentina this Sunday 12 July on Premier Sports and RugbyPass TV, kick-off 3pm BST.