Newcastle Falcons Development 31 Scotland Under-21 21

Scotland Under-21 showed significant signs of improvement tonight but were unable to master a more mature and experienced Newcastle Falcons Development side, losing 31-21 at Percy Park, Newcastle.

Having watched his side fall to a 65-19 defeat at the hands of Sale Jets last week, coach Iain Paxton was upbeat following tonight’s five tries to three loss in which his side showed promising signs ahead of the shadow Six Nations which start next month.

He said: “It was a much improved performance against an older and more experienced side – I think it has been a while since any of their 21st birthdays! Four of their tries came from set piece – two from scrums and two from driven lineouts – and that is where their size and experience worked for them.”

Scotland’s first try came as scrum-half Greig Laidlaw took a quick tap and weaved his way from just inside the Falcons’ half to the try line. Captain and stand-off Dave Blair converted before winger Ben Addison cut a fine angle to go over for the second score.

Blair was against accurate with the boot but he had to wait until the dying minutes for his final conversion as replacement Chris Dunlop, a late addition to the bench, took a pop pass from Blair and crashed over from his first touch of the ball.

Paxton said: “In general it was much better against difficult opposition. We were playing on a heavy pitch and in some tricky conditions but we were much better in defence and our composure was an improvement on last week. We didn’t crumble.”

France come to Falkirk on Friday 3 February to mark the start of Scotland’s under-21 Six Nations campaign. Paxton said: “We’ve had a tough run in the build up to the Six Nations and haven’t had the results we were hoping for but there are benefits. A lot of our players have now experienced a higher level of intensity and they’ll have benefited from the two games. They now know the requirements and demands expected of them.”

SCOTLAND UNDER-21: James King (Border Reivers, Melrose and East of Scotland Institute of Sport); Ben Addison (Stirling County and Central Institute of Sport), Ben Cairns (Edinburgh Gunners, Currie and Scottish Institute of Sport), Lee Kibble (Border Reivers, Biggar and East of Scotland Institute of Sport), Robert Cairns (Boroughmuir); Dave Blair (Sale Sharks) CAPTAIN, Greig Laidlaw (Jed-Forest); Ryan Grant (The Army), Sean Crombie (Aberdeen GSFP and Grampian Institute of Sport), David Young (Leicester Tigers), James Eddie (Glasgow Warriors, Ayr and West of Scotland Institute of Sport), Ian Nimmo (Leicester Tigers), Scott Newlands (Heriot’s and East of Scotland Institute of Sport), Michael Robertson (Hawick), James Taggart (Currie)
Substitutes: Willie Brown (Hillhead/Jordanhill and West of Scotland Institute of Sport), Kyle Traynor (Edinburgh Gunners, Boroughmuir and East of Scotland Institute of Sport), Alex Clarke (Stewart’s Melville FP), Calum Forrester (GHA), Stephen Biggart (Glasgow Hawks), Chris Dunlop (Durham University), Jonathan Alston (Heriot’s)

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This article was posted on 16-Jan-2006, 22:53 by Hugh Barrow.