Scotland Under-20 squad locked down in Kenyan hotel due to unrest ahead of World Rugby Trophy opener

Scotland Under-20s take on Zimbabwe on Sunday in their World Rugby Trophy opener.

The Scotland Under-20 rugby squad were “locked down” in their hotel in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Wednesday due to civil unrest across the country.

The young Scots are preparing for their World Rugby Trophy opener with Zimbabwe on Saturday, but in midweek had to train within their hotel grounds because of clashes between Kenyan police and demonstrators protesting against tax hikes.

It has been reported that six people were killed during the unrest and Scotland head coach Kenny Murray revealed: “The first few days out here have certainly been interesting, we were put into lockdown on Wednesday due to some civil unrest surrounding politics in Kenya. All of the teams involved in the tournament were effectively locked down for their own safety, so we had to do some gym work and training at the hotel.

“We weren’t allowed out of the hotel and there is armed security here while on Wednesday there were demonstrations against some of the politicians around taxes and things like that. We found out that night that there had been several deaths and riots going on, but we had no problems at the hotel. We managed to get out on Thursday and trained at Kenyatta University to get in a proper rugby session, so we are just trying to focus on the Zimbabwe game.”

In terms of the game, well in the absence of first choice stand-off Richie Simpson, Boroughmuir Bears’ Andrew McLean will start at 10 while his club mate Jerry Blyth-Lafferty gets the nod to start at hooker.

Scotland squad: Dan King; Finn Douglas, Ben Salmon, Kerr Yule, Geordie Gwynn; Andrew McLean, Ben Afshar (co-captain); Craig Davidson, Jerry Blyth-Lafferty, Callum Norrie, Eddie Erskine, Jake Parkinson, Liam McConnell (co-captain), Jonny Smith, Sam Derrick. Subs: Corey Tait, Max Surry, Oliver Minnis, Ruaraidh Hart, Jonny Morris, Finlay Burgess, Findlay Thomson, Matt Reid.