The Scotland ‘A’ team’s second encounter of the IRB Nations Cup started, but unfortunately ended, in similar fashion to their first. The youthful Scottish outfit once again let slip an early lead as they succumbed to a full-strength Namibian national team who are en route to next year’s Rugby World Cup in New Zealand. Having built up a half-time advantage, albeit a slender one, through a Bryan Rennie try and a penalty and conversion from stand-off David Blair, Scotland proceeded to force their way through the second half and thus produced some simple individual errors.The Scotland ‘A’ team’s second encounter of the IRB Nations Cup started, but unfortunately ended, in similar fashion to their first. The youthful Scottish outfit once again let slip an early lead as they succumbed to a full-strength Namibian national team who are en route to next year’s Rugby World Cup in New Zealand. Having built up a half-time advantage, albeit a slender one, through a Bryan Rennie try and a penalty and conversion from stand-off David Blair, Scotland proceeded to force their way through the second half and thus produced some simple individual errors. Two of Namibia’s tries came from an unfortunate bounce of the ball and from an interception, but despite the nature of the scores conceded, Scotland were the source of their own downfall. Greig Laidlaw speaks to scottishrugby.org After the game, which ended 20-23, vice-captain and try-scorer Greig Laidlaw said: “Everyone is absolutely gutted. We never put right the wrongs from the first game and they came back to haunt us once again. “We have to look after the ball and go through the phases and we just aren’t doing that. “We’ve now got to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down, and we must beat Argentina. We’ve got to put some pride back in the jersey and we’ve got to put in a performance for the sake of the jersey because the two games we have played are unacceptable.” Head coach Sean Lineen added: “In the beginning, we played how we had trained. We played well and in the first half we were ahead. “But then just a combination of lack of skill, lack of composure and being able to handle the conditions – we just couldn’t do it. The other team got its wind up and away they went.”   Showing their ability in attack and defence, both sides coupled some good attacking play with bruising hits. Centre Ben Cairns almost put the opening points on the board as he squeezed into the corner, but as he grounded the ball, his foot grazed the touchline. Scotland did however retreat with points in the bag as David Blair slotted a penalty after five minutes (3-0). Young Glasgow Warriors-bound flanker, Chris Fusaro, continued to show his class as his talismanic work at the breakdown forced numerous turnovers and penalties. However, his fitness was to curtail his outing to 35 minutes as he battled with the intensity of the game in soaring temperatures. From a line-out ten metres inside the Namibian half, Scotland scored a try straight from the training pitch. The ball was spun from left to right where Cairns broke clean through. He offloaded to Bryan Rennie who sped up the wing to score. Blair converted (10-0). After the first water break of the day, Scotland started to look vulnerable in defence but they continued to hold firm. Namibian fullback, Chrysander Botha, opened his account after 21 minutes as Scotland were penalised for pulling down at the lineout (10-3). But despite Botha’s three points, Scotland had more to worry about as Namibia scored through scrum-half Eugene Jantjies. David Blair’s restart had gone out on the full, so from the resultant scrum on half-way, Namibia picked the ball up and darted up the right wing. They chipped ahead, but as Scotland fullback Jack Cuthbert went to collect the ball, it bounced away from him and Botha scooped it up before sending Jantjies in for the try (10-8). Blair claimed his second penalty before the half-time whistle sounded (13-8). In the second half, Namibia continued to press Scotland and their hard work began to pay off. Botha claimed another penalty before Tinus du Plessis and Shaun Esterhuizen both crossed the whitewash in quick succession (13-11). Esterhuizen slipped through the Scotland defence from close range, and Botha converted, before Scotland’s replacement hooker, Fergus Thomson, was punished for a poor offload when peeling round the side of a maul (13-18). His flick-pass was snatched by captain Jacques Burger. Burger then found the eventual try-scorer, Tinus du Plessis, in support (13-23). In the final ten minutes, Scotland continued to attempt and attack. With some positive phases of play, they eventually park the Namibian forwards in the corner. But as the backs were released, David Blair’s replacement, younger brother Alex, knocked the ball as he was tackled on his way between the posts. Scotland’s substitute scrum-half, Greig Laidlaw, gave them hope in the dying moments as some individual graft around the fringe of a scrum on the Namibian five metre line saw his steal the ball and nip over the line. He converted his own score to narrow the deficit to three points as the final whistle loomed (20-23). The game ended as Namibia threw the ball out of play. The referee took play back for an earlier knock-on from Scotland which marked the moment the Scots were dreading as he called time on the game. Scotland A: Jack Cuthbert (Bath); John Houston (Edinburgh), Ben Cairns (Edinburgh), Bryan Rennie (Exeter Chiefs), Mark Robertson (Edinburgh); David Blair (Edinburgh), Mark McMillan (Glasgow Warriors); Bruce Douglas (Montpellier), Andrew Kelly (Edinburgh), David Young (Edinburgh), Fraser McKenzie (Edinburgh), James Eddie (Glasgow Warriors), Ally Hogg (Edinburgh) CAPTAIN, Chris Fusaro (Heriot’s)*, Roddy Grant (Edinburgh) Substitutes: Scott Newlands (Edinburgh) for Fusaro (35mins), Fergus Thomson (Glasgow Warriors) for Kelly (50mins), Lewis Niven (Edinburgh Accies)* for Young (48mins) for Niven (53mins) for Young (63mins), Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh) for McMillan (50mins), Peter Horne (Glasgow Warriors) for Cuthbert (66mins), Ed Kalman (Glasgow Warriors) for Douglas (67mins), Alex Blair (Edinburgh) for David Blair (68mins) * = Member of Scottish Rugby’s National Academy Namibia: Chrysander Botha; Llewellyn Winkler, Piet van Zyl, Darryl de la Harpe, Sergio de la Harpe; Jacky Bock, Eugene Jantjies; Johnny Redelinghuys, Shaun Esterhuizen, Marius Visser, Heinz Koll, Nico Esterhuizen, Jacques Burger (C), Jacques Nieuwenhuis, Pieter Jan van LillSubstitutes: Egbertus O’Callaghan, Jane du Toit, Wacca Kazombiaze, Tinus du Plessis, Colin De Koe, Godwin Walters, McGrath van Wyk Scotland A squad (sponsor Murray) to compete at the IRB Nations Cup in Romania (8-20 June): Forwards: Bruce Douglas (Montpellier), James Eddie, Calum Forrester (both Glasgow Warriors), Chris Fusaro (Heriot’s)*, Roddy Grant, Ally Hogg (both Edinburgh), Ed Kalman (Glasgow Warriors), Andrew Kelly, Fraser McKenzie, Scott Newlands (all Edinburgh), Lewis Niven (Edinburgh Accies)*, Fergus Thomson (Glasgow Warriors), Steven Turnbull, David Young (both Edinburgh) Backs: Alex Blair, David Blair, Ben Cairns (all Edinburgh), Jack Cuthbert (Bath), Rob Dewey, Peter Horne (both Glasgow Warriors), John Houston, Greig Laidlaw (both Edinburgh), Mark McMillan (Glasgow Warriors), Bryan Rennie (Exeter Chiefs), Mark Robertson (Edinburgh), Colin Shaw (Scotland 7s) * = Member of Scottish Rugby’s National Academy Scotland A’s fixtures/results at the 2010 IRB Nations Cup – all to be played at the Stadionul National Arcul de Triumf Scotland A 21-22 Georgia, Friday 11 June Scotland A 20-23 Namibia, Tuesday 15 June Argentina Jaguars v Scotland A, Sunday 20 June