Scotland U20s kick off World Trophy with 10-try victory over Zimbabwe despite second half wobble

Scotland under-20 head coach Kenny Murray was generally satisfied with the performance in the opening win in the World Rugby Trophy versus Zimbabwe on Saturday, but he knows the team can get better.

Co-captain Ben Afshar scored two tries in Scotland's win. Credit: Antony Munge/World Rugby

The young Scots won the Pool A clash in Nairobi in Kenya 64-33, scoring 10 tries in total, but they switched off for a period in the second half and Zimbabwe capitalised. Winger Geordie Gwynn was the man who led the way with a hat-trick of tries while co-captain Ben Afshar and second-row Eddie Erskine scored two apiece.

Reflecting on the triumph, Murray said: “We are pleased to win and get a game under our belts. Performance-wise we dominated the game well in the first half and got ourselves into a well-deserved lead, we controlled the game well, executed things well and took a few of our opportunities.

“If we are to be critical of ourselves we weren’t clinical enough in attack and we left a few tries out there in the first half and then again in the second half. So, going forward we want to be more clinical with the ball in hand while after the break we had a really poor 10-15 minute spell defensively, we were a bit narrow and switched off.

“They got their tails up and we didn’t react quickly enough so there are a lot of learnings we can take from that period. We have things to work on before the next game, but overall it was a positive start.”

Scotland got off to a flyer in the Nyayo National Stadium when scrum-half Afshar scored an unconverted try after three minutes and then hooker Jerry Blyth-Lafferty added a converted effort in the eighth minute.

That gave them the platform to be more expansive and a neat chip and chase saw Gwynn score his first try of the day after 17 minutes. The Ealing Trailfinders man scored his second after 24 minutes and Afshar’s conversion made it 26-0.

Scotland then had a couple of tries disallowed before Zimbabwe lost two men – hooker Brian Chiang and No.8 Shingi Manyarara – to yellow cards just before half-time. The extra space allowed Gwynn to complete his hat-trick and it was 31-0 at the break.

Coming out against 13 men at the start of the second half, Scotland were keen to press home their advantage - and they did. Erskine went over for their sixth try soon after the restart and then, in the 45th minute, a good team move saw Afshar score his second. Replacement Corey Tait was the scorer of try number eight and at that stage Scotland were 50-0 up.

Zimbabwe got themselves on the scoreboard with a converted effort when Chiang went over, but then they lost replacement Shadreck Mandaza to the sin bin. When they had 14 men Zimbabwe came alive, running the ball from everywhere and scoring three tries through winger Edward Sigauke, Leo Mutendi and sub Tawanda Matipano.

Suddenly it was 50-26 and the Scots were a bit shellshocked, but in the last 10 minutes they scored tries number nine and 10 through centre Ben Salmon and Erskine, full-back Dan King converting both. Those tries were separated by Zimbabwe’s fifth try, Mandaza the scorer as it finished 64-33.

Next up for Scotland is USA on Thursday at noon UK time.