Scottish Rugby shake up Under-20 coaching team as Fergus Pringle moves from Super6 champions Watsonians

Scottish Rugby has shaken up Kenny Murray's Scotland Under-20 coaching team ahead of the 2023 Under-20 Six Nations following a run of 14 successive defeats.

Watsonians head coach Fergus Pringle will take up a new role as Scotland Under-20 forwards coach. (Photo by Ewan Bootman / SNS Group)

Fergus Pringle will take over as forwards coach after moving from Super6 side Watsonians where he has been head coach since 2019. This year he led the Myreside outfit to win both the Super6 Sprint Series and the Super6 Championship.

Scotland Women High Performance Manager Scott Forrest will also join the set-up as an assistant coach focusing on attack. Forrest was previously Scotland Women’s 7s head coach at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and Team GB Women’s 7s head coach at the 2021 Toyko Olympics.

Murray’s previous U20s assistants, Shade Munro and Rob Chrystie, will depart the set-up to focus on their full-time roles with the professional club academies in Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh Rugby respectively.

Pringle said: “I’d like to thank Watsonians for the Super6 Head Coaching opportunity. For the last three and a half years they’ve trusted me to develop the Super6 programme, there is a special group of players and staff at the club that will no doubt drive the club onto more success in the future, both on and off the field.

“I’m really excited to join Scotland U20 as forwards coach and to work alongside an experienced coach like Kenny and the wider management group. It’s a great opportunity to work with the best young players in the country who are coming through our systems and support their development to reach their full potential.”

Scotland U20 head coach Murray added: “In both Fergus and Scott we’ve got two quality coaches who are specialist in their areas and have huge amount of experiences in high-performance environments.

“Both coaches will be in camp this week as the playing group come together for the second of three camps prior to the Christmas break. Our first camp last week was a good opportunity to get the players together for the first time and set out our aims, objectives and standards for the programme.

“I’d like to thank Watsonians for their assistance in the process of Fergus transitioning into his role with the U20s programme. We will now work with Watsonians in finding a replacement for Fergus.

“Having both Shade and Rob focusing on their respective teams will be of great benefit to the development of the young players within those environments.”