SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY REPORTS
Under 20s: Jeffrey's men determined to end on a high against Tonga



Published Date: 21 June 2009
By Alan Lorimer
SCOTLAND'S Under-20s will today complete a tough programme of ten international matches this season against Tonga at the Hanazono Stadium in Japan's second city, Osaka, to decide the ninth and tenth finishing places in the IRB Under-20 World Championship.
Irrespective of the outcome against the Polynesian side, the statistics will make encouraging reading even if they still leave Scotland trailing behind their home nation counterparts. The worst scenario for the Scots is finishing with a 50 per cent record but a win today would raise that figure to 60 per cent.

"This is a better group," remarked Scotland Under-20 manager John Jeffrey. "We achieved a 60 per cent success rate in the Six Nations and that stacks up well when you look at the targets set by the SRU in their business plan.

"But although we've done reasonably well here in Japan, we're disappointed at not finishing in the top eight. That was all down to Samoa's injury-time drop goal. Had the scoreline remained level, we would have gone through to the top eight on better points difference.

"The only good thing is that we get to play different countries, Fiji and Tonga, whereas had we gone into the second group we would have been in with France, Wales and Ireland."

Japan is a long way to go for a repeat of the Six Nations" suggested the former Scotland and Lions flanker.

The other encouraging aspect for Scotland is that five of the squad will be eligible to play in next year's championship, being held in Argentina. Top among them was Selkirk centre Alex Dunbar, who clocked up the most game time of all the squad players.

"Alex Dunbar was in many ways the find of the championship. I think he could make it into professional rugby," said Jeffrey. "He's an intelligent player and always keen to learn from the coaches."

The other players returning next year are lock Rob Harley, another big success, fellow second row Grant Gilchrist from Stirling, who captained the U19s this season, the impressive Stuart McInally from Watsonians, and the busy Currie hooker Alun Walker, who replaced injured skipper Fraser Brown midway through the tournament.

Scotland U-20: (v Tonga in Osaka today, kick-off 2pm BST ) P Horne (West of Scotland); G Anderson (Ayr), R Johnston (Leeds Carnegie), A Dunbar (Selkirk), A McCulloch (Aberdeen Grammar Rugby); A White (Glasgow Hawks), H Pyrgos (Loughborough Colleges); G Shiells (Kelso), F Gillies (Heriot's), D Morton (Bridgewater), R Harley (West of Scotland), R Gray (Glasgow Warriors), R Wilson (London Scottish), C Fusaro (Heriot's), S McInally (Watsonians). Replacements: A Walker (Currie), D Orr (Haddington), G Gilchrist (Stirling County), S Dewar (Heriot's), P Jericevich (Glasgow Hawks), R McGowan (Stirling County), T Brown (Edinburgh Accies)

This article was posted on 21-Jun-2009, 12:58 by Hugh Barrow.