THE HERARLD REVEALS

Injured duo on their way home
Lock Nick Campbell and hooker Fraser Brown are flying back home from Tokyo today after sustaining injuries that have ruled them out for the remainder of Scotland's matches in the IRB World Under-20 Championship.

Campbell, of Glasgow Hawks, a mainstay of the Scotland team this season, picked up a knee injury in their final pool match against the hosts while Brown, the captain, damaged his shoulder.

Replacements Alun Walker (Currie) and Tom Drennan (Edinburgh Accies) are expected to join the squad in Osaka today ahead of the semi-final against Fiji on Wednesday.

Under-19 cap Walker came through the system at Musselburgh, ahead of joining Currie this season while Drennan, who was in the squad for the Six Nations under-20 championship, is a product of the north Edinburgh youth rugby initiative BATs.

While Walker is a direct replacement for Brown at hooker, Drennan joins the back row contingent.

But with Rob Harley of West of Scotland already having made appearances in the second row and Grant Gilchrist similarly having proved himself, the call-up of Drennan makes sense.

The Scotland team moved base from Tokyo yesterday after a overcoming the pressure of the occasion against Japan to pull off what was a vital win.

They triumphed as a result of tries from Grant Anderson and Chris Fusaro and a Peter Horne conversion. The victory earned the Scots a third-place finish in their pool and a slot among the 9-12 group of countries for the final two matches.

Crucially, following the IRB's decision to trim the tournament from 16 teams to 12, it guarantees the Scots a place in next year's championship in Argentina; Although the performance against Japan wasn't of the eye-catching kind, Scotland did enough to win and, crucially, neutralised their mauling tactics.

"We constantly had to counter their driving mauls and driven line-out but we stood up to it" said head coach Rob Moffat.

"We knew we had to win and we did but we have two more games now and I hope we can concentrate on putting together better performances.

England, the No.2 seeds here and reigning Six Nations under-20 champions, topped Pool B after defeating Samoa 52-7.

England now face South Africa, 43-27 winners over France yesterday, while in the other semi-final, the holders, New Zealand, take on Australia.

Wales and Ireland, both of whom lost to Scotland in the Six Nations, are playing for places in the 5-8 grouping which also includes France and Samoa.

Scotland P Horne (West of Scotland); G Anderson (Ayr), A Dunbar (Selkirk), R Johnston (Leeds Carnegie), A McCulloch (Aberdeen Grammar); A White (Glasgow Hawks), P Jericevich ( Hawks); D Orr (Haddington), F Brown (Watsonians) captain, D Morton (Bridgewater), N Campbell (Hawks), R Gray (Glasgow Warriors), R Wilson (London Scottish), S McInally (Watsonians), C Fusaro (Heriot's).

Replacements used: F Gillies (Heriot's), G Shiells (Kelso), R Harley (West), S Dewar (Heriot's), H Pyrgos (Loughborough Colleges), R McGowan (Stirling County).

Scotland Tries Anderson, Fusaro Con Horn

This article was posted on 15-Jun-2009, 06:55 by Hugh Barrow.