Scotland Under-20s suffer huge blow as Uruguay defeat ends hopes of World Rugby promotion

Scotland’s hopes of winning the World Rugby under-20 Trophy and being promoted back to the Championship are over after defeat to Uruguay on Tuesday.

Uruguay got the better of the young Scots in Kenya. Pic: Antony Munge/World Rugby

This was the Pool A decider in Kenya and it was the South Americans who came to the party to win 37-26 with Scotland way below par. It means that Uruguay and Spain will play in the final on Sunday to see who progresses from this second-tier event to the top-tier for 2024. All Scotland are left with is a third-place play-off with Samoa and, worryingly, the under-20 age group have won just four and lost 19 matches since early 2020.

In the first half in the Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi, a converted try by Pedro Brum put Uruguay 7-0 up. Juan Carlos Canessa’s penalty made it 10-0 until Eddie Erskine bagged a converted try and was then yellow carded. Uruguay took advantage with 10 points, Máximo Lamelas scoring a converted try and Icaro Amarillo banging over a long-range drop goal. A try from Corey Tait, converted by co-captain Ben Afshar, plus a yellow card for the opposition made it 20-14 to Uruguay at the break.

It was 14-man Uruguay who scored next though, Juan González’s converted try putting them 27-14 up. A Tait five pointer reduced the deficit before a Canessa penalty. In the 59th minute Francisco García was sin-binned for Uruguay and Erskine’s converted try made it 30-26. Just before getting back to 15 men Uruguay struck the killer blow though through a converted try via Guillermo Juan Storace.