Scotland Under 20s 'in good place' as impressive win over Argentina sets up chance to equal best ever finish
Young Scots score seven tries in Junior World Championship victory
Scotland scored seven tries to impressively defeat Argentina 44-26 in the fifth-eighth place semi-final at the Junior World Championship in Georgia on Sunday.
At the Avchala Stadium in Tbilisi, Scotland got off to a fast start and never looked back, although their opponents, third in the tournament in 2025, did come back at times.
It means that the young Scots will now have a chance to finish fifth overall if they defeat Wales in their final match on Friday and that would equal the country’s best ever result in this showpiece event from 2017. Wales booked their spot after they held on in a classic semi-final to defeat Australia 38-36 on Sunday night.
Back then the likes of current full caps Matt Fagerson, Stafford McDowall Darcy Graham and Blair Kinghorn were involved in the squad.
The current squad played some great rugby against Argentina and, after this victory came off the back of pool wins over Italy and Japan and a battling loss to New Zealand in Kutaisi earlier in the competition, head coach Fergus Pringle said: “I am really pleased for the boys, they put in a big shift.
“I think our conditioning showed that last 20 minutes of the game, we finished the game strongly. Before that, we started the game well which gave us a bit of belief, starting well was always going to be important.
“We had a few spells where we knew we weren't in control, but the boys dug in and then fought back every time they had to. I'm just really chuffed for them that they put in such a good performance in such a big game.
“The guys were really composed throughout the whole game and physically we're in a good place despite having played four games so far in a short space of time. The players will now try and recover as best they can and then we will try and finish with our best performance of the competition on Friday hopefully.”
Scotland took the lead against Argentina in the ninth minute when tighthead prop Ollie Blyth-Lafferty went over for a try converted by stand-off Jake Dalziel.
In the 22nd minute, Argentina had their scrum-half Benjamin Ledesma Arocena yellow carded and straight afterwards Scotland’s second converted try came via captain Joe Roberts.
Five minutes later the Argentineans got themselves on the scoreboard with a seven-point penalty try and Scotland second-row Dan Halkon was yellow carded.
It was 14 men versus 14 at that stage and Scotland’s third try came just after the half hour mark via winger Nairn Moncrieff to make it 19-7.
Argentina were briefly back to 15, but then hooker Nicolas Cambiasso was yellow carded in the 35th minute and their ill-discipline was hurting them.
Scotland’s fourth try came in the 47th minute via scrum-half Hamish MacArthur before a score from Argentina winger Bautista Lescano made it 24-12 soon after.
Centre Pedro Coll’s then scored Argentina’s third try and when Federico Serpa Laporte, the sub, converted that one it was 24-19 with 20 minutes to go.
Scotland then found some more energy and Roberts scored his second try from an excellent lineout drive and things got even better for Scotland when further tries from sub Jamie Stewart and back-row Harvey Preston made it 41-19.
Coll was yellow carded between tries six and seven and shorthanded Argentina scored a late try through centre Ramon Fernandez, but it was Scotland’s day and Dalziel’s penalty at the death finished things.
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