UNDER 21 LOOK TO BUILD ON IRISH VICTORY
Posted: 16/Mar/06
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Scotland U21 coach Iain Paxton has named the same 22 players to face Italy on Friday as the squad who beat Ireland U21 last weekend. Positionally, there has been a shuffle in the backs with Ben Addison moving from fullback to left wing, James King starting at fullback and Robert Cairns dropping to the bench.

Paxton said: “James King is a full time player with the Border Reivers so has a bit more experience which we felt would be better for this game. Robert Cairns, who came into the starting line-up as a late injury replacement for Lee Kibble in our match against Ireland, did very well and is still very much on a learning curve at the moment.

“Having five back to back games has been quite tiring for the players, with last week’s match a 7.30pm kick off and this week’s a 2.30pm plus the travelling and turnaround in between some very physical games, we have tapered down the training this week to allow the players to recuperate. They’re all in good spirits following last weekend’s win [24-21] and really looking forward to the Italy match.

“We’re very keen to get in there straight away and get a good result. Italy have had a tough championship so far and we fully respect that they’re going to be very hard opponents but our squad are going into the match in a very positive mood.”


Scotland Under-21 team to play Italy in Benevento in the shadow Six Nations on Friday 17 March, kick-off 2.30pm (local time)

15 James King (Border Reivers, Melrose and East of Scotland Institute of Sport)
14 Cameron Johnston (Newcastle Falcons)
13 Ben Cairns (Edinburgh Gunners, Currie and Scottish Institute of Sport)
12 Iain Kennedy (Glasgow Warriors, Glasgow Hawks and West of Scotland Institute of Sport)
11 Ben Addison (Stirling County and Central Institute of Sport)

10 Dave Blair (Sale Sharks) CAPTAIN
9 Greig Laidlaw (Jed-Forest)

1 Ryan Grant (The Army)
2 Sean Crombie (Aberdeen GSFP and Grampian Institute of Sport)
3 David Young (Leicester Tigers)
4 James Eddie (Glasgow Warriors, Ayr and West of Scotland Institute of Sport)
5 Ian Nimmo (Leicester Tigers)
6 John Barclay (Glasgow Warriors and Scottish Institute of Sport)
8 John Beattie (Glasgow Warriors and Scottish Institute of Sport)
7 Alan MacDonald (Edinburgh Gunners and Scottish Institute of Sport)

Substitutes
16 Andrew Reekie (Currie)
17 Kyle Traynor (Edinburgh Gunners, Boroughmuir and East of Scotland Institute of Sport)
18 Scott Newlands (Heriot’s and East of Scotland Institute of Sport)
19 Calum Forrester (GHA and West of Scotland Institute of Sport)
20 Stephen Biggart (Glasgow Hawks)
21 Chris Dunlop (Durham University)
22 Robert Cairns (Boroughmuir)

This article was posted on 16-Mar-2006, 12:36 by Hugh Barrow.