SCOTLAND TO FACE AUSTRALIA IN U19 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP OPENER
Scotland under-19 will play Australia, Wales and Japan in the opening stages of the IRB under-19 World Championship 2006 in Dubai.

Scotland are seeded tenth based on their final standing at the 2005 tournament in Durban, South Africa.

This season’s competition runs from 4 to 21 April 2006.

The Scots met their Welsh counterparts twice last season and could not overthrow their dominance on both occasions, the first game ending a close 0-12 at Murrayfield, the latter a disappointing 12-44 in Durban.

However, Scotland under-19 head coach Peter Wright and his team are determined to reverse the trend with a fresh batch of talent.

On the three opponents drawn to play his squad, he said: “Australia are renowned for their strength and are especially tough at age-grade level.

“The boys who have come up from the Scotland under-18 side have the experience of a good six-all draw against Wales in last years Four Nations tournament.

“Japan are somewhat of an unknown entity to us. They have spent around three or four years in age-grade tournaments so they will be no pushover.

“We are just concentrating on our preparations for our under-19 internationals which are coming along nicely,” he added.

In preparation for the first game against Italy next month, the Scots will take on two development sides from BT Premiership 1. Champions Glasgow Hawks and current holders of second place, Watsonians will both provide a team to challenge the squad before they enter international competition.

The opening Under-19 international against Italy takes place in Rome on
Thursday 29 December (kick-off 2:30pm local time).

The two warm-up games are:
Scotland under-19 v Glasgow Hawks – Tuesday 15 November
Scotland under-19 v Watsonians – Tuesday 29 November
(both games will take place on the back pitches at Murrayfield and have a 7pm kick-off)

This article was posted on 10-Nov-2005, 09:40 by Hugh Barrow.