Stuart McInally inspired by Murrayfield win over Wallabies

IT WAS said when Scotland defeated Australia in November that the result would echo down through the game. One young lad who fervently believes that to be the case is the Scotland Under-20 captain Stuart McInally.

The 19-year-old had tickets for that momentous autumn Test match towards the end of 2009, but was not there. He was still inspired, though, and feels that his under-20 teammates will draw on that historic match when they launch their Junior World Cup campaign in Argentina at the start of next month.

"I was planning to be at Murrayfield for the game," he says by way of explanation, "but I was drafted into the Gael Force team for the British and Irish Cup and ended up playing the Cornish Pirates down in Cornwall that weekend.

"But I watched the game on the TV and it was something else. We kick-off against Australia next month and the one thing we learned more than anything from last year's World Cup was the importance of starting the tournament well. The Scotland performance in the autumn showed what can be achieved when you defend really well and match a team like that physically, and that's the big target for us.

"We were a bit sluggish over in Japan last year and lost to Samoa, with a last-minute drop-goal, and that was gutting.

"We lost to England next up and though we went on and beat Japan, Fiji and Tonga, we were disappointed to finish ninth.

"(We are] playing Australia first-up this time and we've got South Africa before we finish the pool with Tonga, but we've spoken as a squad about how we go out there and compete with Australia and South Africa and give ourselves a real chance of improving on ninth place."

The under-20s have been in camp at the start of each week over the past two months and McInally's ability has already been acknowledged, with the Watsonians No8 signing a pro contract with Edinburgh, which he will start on his return from South America. He will come back as Scotland's most-capped under-20 player and, big, powerful and quick, is a highly-rated back row.

However, after a poor Six Nations Championship, McInally is keen to sign off from the age levels by leading the under-20s to some measure of success, and he is pleased he recovered from a hamstring pull to return to training this week.

He added: "That is a relief and it's a great honour to be the most-capped, but it's about the team winning now. Scotland are pretty good at being the underdogs and we believe we can beat Australia and take it from there.

"Last year's team was good and did well in the Six Nations, and it is inspirational what a guy like Richie Gray has experienced since moving up, but (this] squad is as good if not better and when we click we could really do something."