Scotland under-19 stormed to an impressive 36-3 win against Scottish Universities on Sunday at Peffermill, Edinburgh.

Scotland’s points came from six tries from Alan Kelly, Ross Rennie, Jonathan Alston, Donald Malcolm, Greig Scott and Ali Miller with James King converting three of the tries.

Scotland under-19 head coach Peter Wright said: “We showed a great deal of composure and patience which we have lacked in recent games. The boys now know that instead of trying to push it, that kind of patience and composure makes the difference in our try scoring ability. We have come on leaps and bounds since we played Italy in December.”

Looking ahead to the World Championships he added: “The squad now have a few more training sessions which will help towards the build up and some sessions in a heat chamber at Glasgow University in which they will have the chance to exercise to help them get used to the conditions they will be faced with in South Africa. It’s important they know what it will feel like and will hopefully help them adapt and acclimatise quicker when we are there.”

The under-19s next match will be on Friday 1 April when they meet England in King’s Park, Durban, South Africa where they are competing in the IRB Junior World Championships.

The Scottish Universities penalty was kicked by Jamie Duguid.

Graham Kilgour, university co-ordinator for Scottish Rugby, said: “The University squad haven’t had everyone training together so we’ve had a difficult run-up to the game and there were some boys missing. It’s really the first time we’ve seen them together in a match situation. It’s been a difficult time but we learnt a lot from it. It’s good to get a game ahead of this Saturday’s match against Wales Universities.”

Scottish Universities will battle it out against Wales Universities on Saturday (12 March) at St Andrews (kick-off 2.30pm).

Scottish Universities squad to face Welsh Universities:

Backs: Ali Buchan (St Andrews), Richard Davison (Glasgow Caledonia), James Sagar (Stirling), Chris Allan (Aberdeen) Ali Knight (St Andrews), Chris Robson (Edinburgh), Scott Kennedy (RGU), Jamie Duguid (Strathclyde), Euan Clark (Abertay), Robert Primrose (Edinburgh)

Forwards: Neil Dymock (Dundee), John Malakoty (Glasgow), Richard Pryer (Edinburgh), Neil Buchanan (Edinburgh), Jonny Conn (Edinburgh), John Kinnell (St Andrews), Sam Knipe (Dundee) Richard Shilliday (Napier), Colin Mason (Galsgow Caledonia) Dominic McNeil (St Andrews), Jonathan Vernon (Edinburgh), Peter Eccles (Glasgow)

This article was posted on 7-Mar-2005, 19:06 by Hugh Barrow.