Scotland Under-20s suffer second half collapse as Six Nations ends in crushing defeat to Italy

Head coach Kenny Murray has promised that his Scotland Under-20s players will be better prepared for their World Trophy campaign at the end of July than they were for this Six Nations, in which they managed just one win over Wales in round two and conceded 174 points (and 25 tries) in their final three games against France, Ireland and Italy.

The young Scots were blown away by a powerful Italian outfit during the second half of Sunday’s 17-40 defeat in the championship finale and Murray acknowledged that his players are not physically equipped to last 80 minutes against bigger opposition who are used to playing at a higher level of club rugby.

“We talked before the game about work-rate and physicality, and I thought the boys imposed themselves well on Italy in the first half, but our set-piece was under pressure, and in the second half we made too many unforced errors,”’ he said.

"I'm disappointed that we didn't win at least two games over the course of the tournament,” he added. “To be 36-31 up with eight minutes to go against England in round one and not find a way to win is frustrating.

Scotland's Luke McConnell walks through the Italian guard of honour after the 17-40 defeat at Scotstoun in the Under-20 Six Nations. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

"But I'm absolutely not going to criticise the players because their commitment on and off the field has been excellent. They want to play rugby, but, at the moment, we can't impose ourselves physically on this level of opposition.

"From Scottish Rugby's perspective, we want to be dining at the top table of world rugby at all levels, so we need to make sure we give these boys every chance to be successful by preparing them properly and exposing them to the right standard of club rugby.

“We’ve got the World Trophy in Kenya coming up during the summer, which we need to win to get back into the top tier World Championship in 2024.”

Scotland led 10-5 at the break yesterday thanks to a try from full-back Dan King and five points from the boot of stand-off Richie Simpson, against a try from Italian hooker Giovanni Quattrini.

However, tries by Jacopo Botturi and Sebastiano Battara plus a Marcos Francesco Gallorini double wrapped up the win for the visitors at the start of the second half. Scotland snatched a consolation try through Will Robinson before Nicholas Gasperini wrapped up the scoring for the Italians.