Galling end for Scotland Under-20s as they let slip winning position against 14 men

Scotland Under-20s let slip a winning position against 14 men in the final quarter as they lost 34-24 to Australia in the World Rugby Under-20 Championship in Italy.

Kenny Murray’s side at least earned a four-try bonus point - but it should have been more.

Oliver Duncan’s second try of the game put the young Scots 24-17 ahead in the 62nd minute and, with Aussie sub Joey Fowler in the sin-bin, things were looking positive. But Scotland conceded three tries in the final 15 minutes, two of them while they had a one-man advantage.

Scotland co-captain Freddy Douglas impressed throughout against Australia and scored a first-half try. | World Rugby

It was a galling end to the game in the scorching heat of Viadana and leaves Scotland with the daunting prospect of playing South Africa in their final Pool A game on Wednesday. The Scots lost their opening match 56-19 to England while the Aussies were crushed 73-17 by the junior Springboks so this felt like both sides’ best chance of a group-stage victory.

It was the young Wallabies who prevailed, which was tough to take for Scotland’s returning co-captain Freddy Douglas who scored a try and impressed throughout. He blamed his side’s ill discipline.

‘Sort out the discipline’

“Our defence was good, we were folding, we were getting numbers but we would leave one in the ruck, or we’d go high or go offside,” said Douglas. “If we can sort out our discipline… It gave them easy ins and that’s what won them it. For multiple phases of that game we were completely the better team.”

The sides matched each other for most of the first half and Scotland were unlucky to go in at the break 17-10 behind.

The Aussies drew first blood thanks to the quick thinking James Martens who scored from a tap and go after Scotland had been penalised at the scrum. Douglas drew the Scots level from a well worked lineout maul involving Dan Halkon and Reuben Logan but the junior Wallabies came straight back, with Nick Conway tearing down the left wing to score.

Douglas was proving a menace in the loose and one particularly impressive steal helped push Scotland into the Aussie danger zone. They managed to spin it out wide and Kerr Yule’s miss-pass found Duncan on the left wing who squared things up at 10-10.

Scotland scrum-half Hector Patterson clears against Australia. | World Rugby

Matthew Urwin, the Scottish stand-off, hit each post with his two conversion attempts and there was further bad luck for Murray’s team before the half was out.

Australia got their noses in front again when hooker Lipina Ata dived over and it was a little too easy from a Scottish perspective. Sid Harvey's conversion made it 17-10 but the Scots thought they had drawn level five minutes before the interval only for the try to be chalked off. Jed Findlay, on his debut, ‘scored’ in the corner but Fergus Watson had knocked on in the build-up.

Drama in final quarter

Findlay responded in exactly the right way and got the try his performance deserved five minutes into the second half. Urwin made it 17-17.

Then came the yellow card. Fowler made head contact with Duncan as he attempted a ruck clearout, leaving the Aussies with 14 men going into the final quarter. The Scots quickly took advantage, with Duncan forcing his way over for the bonus-point try. It was the first time Scotland had led and Isaac Coates’ impressive conversion from out wide made it 24-17.

Australia were not done, though, and showed impressive resolve, scoring tries through scrum-half Martens - his second - and Finn Baxter to wrest back control, making it 29-24 while Fowler was in the bin. Will Guilfoyle added a sixth try for the Aussies when they were back to their full complement and there was no way back for the Scots.

Teams and scorers

Scorers: Australia U20: Tries: Martens 2, Conway, Ata, Baxter, Guilfoyle. Cons: Harvey 2. Scotland U20: Tries: Douglas, Duncan 2, Findlay. Cons: Urwin, Coates.

Yellow card: Joey Fowler (Aus, 60min)

Scotland U20: 15. Jed Findlay (Exeter); 14. Cameron van Wyk (Ayr), 13. Johnny Ventisei (Glasgow; co-capt), 12. Kerr Yule (Glasgow), 11. Fergus Watson (Glasgow); 10. Matthew Urwin (Glasgow), 9. Hector Patterson (Edinburgh); 1. Oliver McKenna (Glasgow), 2. Joe Roberts (Glasgow), 3. Ollie Blyth-Lafferty (Edinburgh), 4. Dylan Cockburn (Melrose), 5. Dan Halkon (Glasgow), 6. Oliver Duncan (Edinburgh), 7. Freddy Douglas (Edinburgh; co-capt), 8. Reuben Logan (Northampton).

Replacements: 16. Seb Stephen (Edinburgh Acad/Glasgow), 17. Ben White (Melrose/Edinburgh), 18. Jamie Stewart (Edinburgh), 19. Charlie Moss (Montpellier), 20. Oliver Finlayson-Russell (Univ of St Andrews), 21. Noah Cowan (Brunel Univ/Ealing Trailfinders), 22. Isaac Coates (Edinburgh), 23. Jack Hocking (Edinburgh).