Scotland u21 22, England u21 49

For the second successive week Scotland put up a good show in the first half of an under-21 international before succumbing after the interval. This evening, against England at Falkirk Stadium, the Scots were leading 15-10 going into first-half injury times after tries by the back-row duo, Alan MacDonald and Michael Robertson, but eventually they were engulfed by six tries to three.

A week ago they were sunk the goal-kicking and pace of a Welsh stand-off. In the chilling Falkirk air tonight they were hit by three double salvos, with a trio of English backs each scoring two tries.

\"We were playing under pressure with a level of intensity from the English that the boys are not accustomed to. But that\'s the level we have to aspire to, both as players and as a union,” John Jeffrey, Scotland’s team manager, commented afterwards.

“We battled hard for the first half and stuck in well until the physicality and fitness and basically the overall pressure started to have an effect. Errors started to creep into our game, and the English capitalised on them.”

In the second half it was akin to watching beavers rushing about to repair their dam that a bear was bent on destroying. James Eddie and Ian Nimmo relished their shots at taking the game straight at the opposition, Garry Law was more subtly of like mind, Scott Newlands and MacDonald truly worked like beavers, and David Blair was ever alive to the odd chance to move the ball wide. The Scots did not lack in effort and enterprise, only in experience, against a team of mainly full-time professionals.

In terms of margins and points conceded, it was the Scots’ second worst defeat by the English at this level. They did not deserve that.

Scotland were twice ahead in the first half after England had taken an early lead, with Mike Brown escaping three tackles on a sprint up the left touchline before Ben Foden went in for a try in seven minutes, Ryan Lamb converting. Ben Addison responded by pressuring Topsey Ojo into conceding a penalty from which Blair kicked the goal, and when Newlands broke forward off a wheeling scrum in front of the visitors’ posts MacDonald dived in for a try. Blair converted, and the Scots led 10-7 after 18 minutes.

Lamb equalised with a penalty goal in 23 minutes, when the Italian referee deemed that the Scots had been responsible for a scrummage collapse in front of their own posts. But back came the Scots immediately, with Blair’s long pass releasing Addison on a thrust up the right before a swift switch to the left. Ojo’s defensive awareness was so awry that he allowed himself to be deceived by two Scottish forwards before Robertson ploughed over. The Scots were ahead again even though Blair’s conversion attempted from the left was wide.

Scotland would have stretched their lead in added time if they could have exploited James King’s interception a few feet out from his own posts. The full back raced into the English half, with Addison in support, but the visitors scrambled back to save their line. Not only that, England swept straight downfield for Thom Evans to beat two Scots in running in a try that Lamb converted for 17-15 at half-time.

Foden and Evans each scored a second try after the interval. Anthony Allen also had two as well as being named man of the match, but it was a second Lamb penalty goal that opened the second-half scoring only two minutes after the interval.

Five minutes later, off ruck ball, Allen too easily found space to run through at the posts. Lamb converted for 27-15. But luck seemed to turn in Scotland’s favour when Neil Briggs was sin-binned for killing the ball close to his own line, and Garry Law profited from the subsequent pressure with a try that Blair converted, cutting the margin back to five points.

Scotland, however, made no more from their numerical advantage. Before Briggs returned Allen had scored his second try, and Lamb had kicked a conversion and a third penalty goal.

By then, with England leading 37-22, the game had gone from the Scots, but the visitors still had more to come. When Addison and Blair were thwarted on an attempted breakout the subsequent turnover on the English 10-metre line allowed Evans to score his second, Lamb converting, and another Scottish mistake opened the way for Foden to run in again. Lamb struck a post with his conversion attempt: it was his only miss in nine kicks, and it prevented the English from reaching a half-century.

Right at the end, with only injury time left, Blair was only inches away from a try that would have exploited English indecision close to their own line. The Scots’ captain, though, was just beaten to the touchdown, and his team could make nothing of the consequent five-metre scrummage.

Scotland u21 – James King (Border Reivers & Melrose); Ben Addison (Stirling County), Ben Cairns (Edinburgh Gunners & Currie), Garry Law (Border Reivers), Lee Kibble (Border Reivers & Biggar); Dave Blair (Sale Sharks) captain, Greig Laidlaw (Jed-Forest); Ryan Grant (The Army), Sean Crombie (Aberdeen GSFP), David Young (Leicester Tigers), James Eddie (Glasgow Warriors & Ayr), Ian Nimmo (Leicester Tigers), Scott Newlands (Heriot’s), Michael Robertson (Hawick), Alan MacDonald (Edinburgh Gunners). Substitutes – Ross Miller (Melrose) for Robertson (54 minutes), Iain Kennedy (Glasgow Warriors &Glasgow Hawks) for Law (67), Kyle Traynor (Edinburgh Gunners & Boroughmuir) for Grant (73), Calum Forrester (GHA) for Newlands (73), Robert Cairns (Boroughmuir) for Kibble (73). Substitutes not used – Innes Brown (Stirling County), Stephen Biggart (Glasgow Hawks).
Tries, MacDonald, Robertson, Law; conversions, Blair (2); penalty goal, Blair.

England u21 – Mike Brown (NEC Harlequins); Topsy Ojo (London Irish), Matt Cornwell (Leicester Tigers) captain, Anthony Allen (Gloucester), Thom Evans (London Wasps); Ryan Lamb (Gloucester), Ben Foden (Sale Sharks); Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints), Neil Briggs (Sale Sharks), David Wilson (Newcastle Falcons), Richard Blaze (Worcester Warriors), Tom Croft (Leicester Tigers), James Haskell (London Wasps), Jordan Crane (Leeds Tykes), Michael Hills (Sale Sharks). Substitutes – Alex Rogers (NEC Harlequins) for Haskell (57-62), Tom Ryder (Saracens) for Croft (67), Nick Abendanon (Bath Rugby) for Ojo (67), Nick Runciman (Worcester Warriors) for Foden (71), Tajiv Masson (NEC Harlequins) for Cornwell (71), Rogers for Briggs (73), Mark Lambert (NEC Harlequins) for Hartley (73), Chris Robshaw (NEC Harlequins) for Crane (73).
Tries, Allen (2), Evans (2), Foden (2); conversions, Lamb (5); penalty goals, Lamb (3).

This article was posted on 25-Feb-2006, 00:47 by Hugh Barrow.