Peter Wright’s side face sternest of opening ties

SCOTLAND face a tough baptism in the IEB World Junior Championships when they open the tournament against the favourites Australia in Cape Town this afternoon.

The Scots have grown this season since a heavy defeat in their opening Six Nations match to France with notable performances against France and Italy, but this is a step-up for Peter Wright’s youngsters.

Emphasising the difference, while Scotland are captained by fly-half Harry Leonard, who has made a handful of appearances for Edinburgh, the Australian team is led by Liam Gill.

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The flanker was the youngest to feature in the championships when he played in 2010 aged just 17, and now comes into the tournament as an established Super 15 player with Queensland Reds, having been part of the Super 15-winning side of last season.

The Australian squad, coached by former Brumbies chief David Nucifora, also features a lot of players who have featured on the IRB World Sevens circuit and alongside New Zealand, hosts South Africa and England are expected to top their pool and make it through to the last four.

Scotland face France on Friday and finish their pool matches against Argentina a week tomorrow.

lScotland 7s came within one step of winning silverware in their first outing in the FIRA-AER GP European Sevens Series yesterday, losing out to Russia 19-7 in the Plate final. However, they managed to improve their FIRA-AER European rankings from sixth to seventh ahead of the tournament’s second leg in Moscow on 30 June and 1 July.

En route to their closing match, the team mostly made up of new recruits from the club game, representing Scotland for the first time, saw-off Georgia (14-7) and hosts, France (21-12). For head coach Graham Shiel this was a positive outcome for a team playing together for the first time. He said: “The team has worked together very well this weekend and have shown they are capable of performing at this level. They were solid against Georgia and France, but didn’t quite take control of the game against Russia.”