Scotland under-20 have made just one change to the side that earned their first away victory at this age level as they prepare to face England at the home of Glasgow Warriors, Firhill (kick-off 7pm) – ADMISSION IS FREE.
Scrum-half Alex Black (Leeds Carnegie) returns to the starting line up which sees Caithness scrum-half Kris Hamilton return to the bench.
So far this season’s under-20 squad have registered two historic under-20 achievements, the first in front of almost 3000 vocal supporters in Inverness who backed them to the hilt as they battled back from conceding an early score to draw 8-8 with France (the first under-20 side not to lose to les Bleus).
The under-20s then bounced back from a 20-12 loss to Wales at Cardiff Arms Park and secured the first away victory for Scotland at this age-grade with a dramatic 16-18 victory over Italy in front of a 4000-strong Sardinian crowd.
Head coach Eamon John: “We make the selection according to the opposition. We wanted to start quickly against Italy which is why we went with Kris [Hamilton] but from an English point of view we need a bit more physicality at the start.
“England will be smarting over their Ireland result [they lost 10-25 at Kingsholm] and have had a mixed campaign with a variety of players available at different times in the competition but when they have their top players on the field like they did against Wales they ran in five second-half tries.
“Any team in any sport is always beatable. It’s up to us to get it right. We respect England who will have players with under-20 World Cup final experience – but we’re going to go out there to do a job on them and make life uncomfortable in Glasgow.
“I hope we get a good support at the Scotland v England game – the support we’ve had so far has been fantastic and I’m looking forward to playing in front of a big, noisy and patriotic crowd”
SCOTLAND TEAM TO PLAY ENGLAND, Firhill Stadium, Glasgow, Friday 12 March (kick-off 7pm)
15 Tom Brown (Edinburgh Accies)*
14 Oliver Grove (Worcester Warriors)
13 Jonny Kennedy (Sale Sharks)
12 Alex Dunbar (Selkirk)*
11 Dougie Fife (Currie)**
10 Alex Blair (Edinburgh Accies)*
9 Alex Black (Leeds Carnegie)
1 Nicky Little (Hawick)*
2 Alun Walker (Currie)
3 Colin Phillips (Stewart’s Melville)**
4 Matthew Reid (Heriot’s)
5 Robert Harley (West of Scotland)*
6 Michael Maltman (Heriot’s)**
8 Stuart McInally CAPTAIN (Watsonians)*
7 David Denton (Edinburgh Accies)*
Replacements
16 Lindsey Gibson (Melrose)
17 George Hunter (Glasgow Hawks)
18 Aaron Hall (Newcastle Falcons)
19 Callum Stidston-Nott (London Scottish)
20 Kris Hamilton (Caithness)**
21 Matthew Scott (Currie)**
22 James Johnstone (Currie)*

This article was posted on 8-Mar-2010, 19:33 by Hugh Barrow.