Scotland Under 20s in 'unusual' favourites position as squad named for World Rugby Trophy

Scotland Under 20 head coach Kenny Murray has named his squad for the World Rugby Trophy. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

The Scotland under-20 squad are heading into the upcoming World Rugby Trophy as favourites, but head coach Kenny Murray is taking nothing for granted and is expecting an “intense” tournament.

On Wednesday, Murray named his 28-man squad for the second tier, eight team event which runs from July 15 to July 30 in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. Scotland are in this event because in 2019 the under-20s were relegated from the top tier, 12 team Championship.

Four years ago the squad featured players like Ross Thompson, Murphy Walker and Ewan Ashman who have since gone on to earn full caps, but a dismal run and then an 11th/12th place play-off loss to Fiji condemned them to the drop.

Usually the under-20s would have had a chance to bounce back 12 months later, but it has taken until now for World Rugby-run age-grade events to be held again due to the pandemic.

It means that while France, New Zealand, Wales, Japan, Australia, Ireland, England, Fiji, Argentina, South Africa, Georgia and Italy are in South Africa battling it out in the Championship, the young Scots are preparing to pack their bags for a trip to Nairobi.

There they will face Zimbabwe, USA and Uruguay in Pool A before whoever tops the table will take on the winners of Pool B which features Hong Kong China, Kenya, Samoa and Spain.

The winners of the final will then be promoted to the Championship for 2024, but with only one promotion place available and patchy form so far this year Scotland know they cannot afford to take anyone lightly.

“It’s an unusual thing for us at under-20s level to be favourites, to be honest,” Murray, whose side won one match in the Six Nations earlier in the year and were on the end of a 82-7 humbling by Ireland, said.

“When we get out to Kenya, we’ll be really focused on one game at a time, we won’t be thinking about play-offs or finals.

“We’ve got three tough games coming up. We’ve already done a preview of Zimbabwe as a coaching group and they’ve got two or three really dynamic ball carriers. Structurally they’re maybe not as good as what we see in the Six Nations, but they’ve still got a threat.

“They, USA and Uruguay are all going to pose different threats. We’ll be very focused on each of those games to make sure we take one at a time.

“Anybody who thinks it’s going to be easy should watch back at some of the Six Nations games. The schedule is intense [four games in just over two weeks], so it’s going to be interesting for the players who have maybe not experienced that before.

“There are going to be different things to challenge us out there, next weekend it’s 26 degrees in Nairobi for example. Put that alongside the altitude and it’s going to be quite tough.”

Scotland will travel without key men Duncan Munn and Richie Simpson. Centre Munn, co-captain during the Six Nations, has a foot injury while stand-off Simpson suffered a head knock in the warm-up win over Spain last weekend.

Back-row Liam McConnell, 19, and 20-year-old scrum-half Ben Afshar will be co-captains for the trip while 16 forwards and 12 backs have been named, 22 of them having been developed in Scottish schools and clubs.

Scotland squad

Forwards: Jerry Blyth-Lafferty, Rudi Brown, Craig Davidson, Robbie Deans, Sam Derrick, Finn Duraj, Eddie Erskine, Ruaraidh Hart, Liam McConnell (co-captain), Ollie Minnis, Jonny Morris, Callum Norrie, Jake Parkinson, Jonny Smith, Max Surry, Corey Tait.

Backs: Ben Afshar (co-captain), Finlay Burgess, Finn Douglas, Geordie Gwynn, Logan Jarvie, Dan King, Andrew McLean, Hector Patterson, Matt Reid, Ben Salmon, Findlay Thomson, Kerr Yule.

World Rugby Trophy fixtures:

Saturday, July 15: Scotland v Zimbabwe, 10am (8am BST)

Thursday, July 20: Scotland v USA, 2pm (12pm BST)

Tuesday, July 25: Scotland v Uruguay, 4pm (2pm BST)

Sunday, July 30: Finals day