MURRAY SEALS DRAMATIC WIN
Posted: 18/Jun/08
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James Murray came off the bench to score the winning try in extra time with Scotland's under-20 team defeating Canada 15-10 in the IRB Junior World Championship play-off match at Rodney Parade.

With the score locked at 10-10 after normal time, stand-off Murray, who had replaced captain Ruaridh Jackson, crossed the whitewash six minutes into the second period of extra time to hand Scotland victory.

But despite the win, team manager John Jeffrey says the team underperformed and that the players acknowledged they can make vast improvements on their collective display.

Jeffrey said: "We didnt play at all well and we almost paid the price for that. We made too many individual errors, but the bottom line is we won the game.

So now we have a ninth/tenth play-off and we have a chance to improve upon our 10th place seeding when we play next in three days time.

There was brutal honesty in the changing room after the game; there werent any celebrations, just relief at winning it.

The players realized that if we play like that in the next game then we wont win it. The players were very honest about their performance and we need to improve on that.

Thankfully we did play better in extra time and we scored a try in sudden death extra time that won us the game."

Canada raced into a surprise early lead when Matt Evans scored after nine minutes while Nathan Hirayama added the extras.

Scotland under-20 Player of the Year Stevie McColl reduced the deficit 10 minutes later with a try before Canada restored their advantage through a penalty from Hirayama.

Just before the end, replacement scrum half Ross Samson touched down to level the score and it was left to Murray to steal the limelight with a dramatic winning effort.



Scotland under-20 squad (team sponsor Martin Currie): Peter Horne (Howe of Fife), Lee Jones (Selkirk), Paul Loudon (Durham University), Stevie McColl (Dunfermline and National Academy), Chris Kinloch (Edinburgh Academicals and National Academy), Ruaridh Jackson (Glasgow Hawks and National Academy) CAPTAIN, Peter Jericevich (GHA and National Academy); Gary Strain (Glasgow Hawks and National Academy), Adrian Duncan (Stewarts-Melville FP and National Academy), David Morton (Bridgewater), Fraser McKenzie (Heriots and National Academy), Josh Brown (Bristol), Jonny Baird (Watsonians), Andrew Rose (Hartpury College), Craig Simmonds (Heriots).

This article was posted on 18-Jun-2008, 22:19 by Hugh Barrow.