Stand-off David Blair suffered a hamstring injury early on

Date Posted: 13-Jun-05

Scotland were beaten in their second match of the IRB Under 21 World Championship in Mendoza, Argentina tonight by Wales, going down 24-8 at the Maristas club ground.

With the defeat came additional blows to the Scotland squad as stand-off David Blair and winger Ben Cairns were forced off the field with hamstring injuries.

Wales were first on the score sheet with an unconverted try in the opening minutes. Scotland lost play-maker Blair before full-back Brian Archibald slotted a penalty to claw his side back to 5-3.

The Stirling County kicker missed two further attempts at goal, with centre Garry Law also failing to hit the target with a long range effort. The score was unchanged going into half time but following the turnaround Scotland took the lead as winger Cairns crashed over in the corner.

In the process the Currie flier sustained the injury which caused him to leave the field, to be replaced by club team mate Douglas Flockhart. Wales killed off Scotland’s hopes with three further tries, the last two both converted, for the 24-8 win that also gave them a try-scoring bonus point.

Scotland Under-21 coach Iain Paxton said: “We competed well with a fair amount of territory and possession. Too many unforced errors and uncharacteristic mistakes let us down and Wales maximised on those chances, scoring four tries and earning a bonus point. I can’t fault the players for their effort but we need to cut out the mistakes for our final pool match against Canada.”

That match kicks off at 1pm (local time) on Friday 17 June. Mendoza is four hours behind BST.

On the two injuries sustained in the match, Scotland manager John Jeffrey said: “It is too early to tell the extent of the injuries to David and Ben but our medical team will monitor their progress over the next few days.”

SCOTLAND: Brian Archibald (Stirling County and Central Scotland Institute of Sport), Ben Addison (Stirling County & Central Scotland Institute of Sport), Nick De Luca (Heriot's & Scottish Institute of Sport), Garry Law (Hawick & East of Scotland Institute of Sport), Ben Cairns (Currie & Scottish Institute of Sport); David Blair (Sale Sharks), Alasdhair McFarlane (GHA); Stuart Fenwick (Ayr), Ross Ford (The Borders & Scottish Institute of Sport), Moray Lowe (Aberdeen GSFP), Sean Tomes (Newcastle Falcons), James Eddie (Glasgow Rugby, GHA and West of Scotland Institute of Sport), Colin White (Stirling County & Central Scotland Institute of Sport), Scott Forrest (Glasgow Hawks & West of Scotland Institute of Sport), Neil Cochrane (Watsonians & East of Scotland Institute of Sport) CAPTAIN
Substitutes: Stevie Lawrie (Watsonians & East of Scotland Institute of Sport), Willie Blacklock (Hawick), John Beattie (Glasgow Rugby & West of Scotland Institute of Sport) for Tomes, Alan MacDonald (Heriot's & East of Scotland Institute of Sport) for Cochrane, Greig Laidlaw (Jed-Forest), Iain Kennedy (GHA & West of Scotland Institute of Sport) for Blair, Douglas Flockhart (Currie) for Cairns

This article was posted on 13-Jun-2005, 20:12 by Hugh Barrow.