John stands by Under-20s for Dublin clash

SCOTLAND Under-20 head coach Eamon John has kept faith with the team which lost to England for the clash with Ireland Under-20s on Friday.

The young Scots are fourth in the Under-20 Six Nations championship following their 27-6 defeat to England at Kingsholm.

John said: "We fed England points and let them get away from us. Analysis showed all the points they gained were avoidable, self-inflicted, and unfortunately very costly, however, we were by far the better side in the second half and we controlled the tempo."

John added: "Ireland are a good side and favourites for the championship. Credit to them, we respect them but we certainly don't fear them. They've made Athlone a bit of a fortress. All the big guns have been scalped there but we're going to concentrate on the lessons learned through experience against England and go there with a real hunger."

Scotland team: To play Ireland at Athlone, Dublin, Friday 19 March (ko 7.35pm)

T Brown (Edinburgh Accies); O Grove (Worcester Warriors), J Johnstone (Currie), A Dunbar (Selkirk), D Fife (Currie); A Blair (Edinburgh Accies), A Black (Leeds Carnegie); N Little (Hawick), A Walker (Currie), C Phillips (Stewart's-Melville), M Reid (Heriot's), R Harley (West of Scotland), M Maltman (Heriot's), S McInally (Watsonians, capt), D Denton (Edinburgh Accies). Replacements: L Gibson (Melrose), G Hunter (Glasgow Hawks), A Hall (Newcastle Falcons), C Stidston-Nott (London Scottish), K Hamilton (Caithness), M Scott (Currie), D Weir (Glasgow Hawks).