SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY REPORTS

Gallus Weir has world at his feet

Published Date: 30 May 2010
By Iain Morrison
THE SCOTLAND senior team may balk at playing back-to-back Tests when touring the southern hemisphere but the junior Scotland side have no such luxury. Yesterday afternoon, a 26-strong under-20 squad flew out to Argentina who happen to be hosting the IRB Junior World Championships at the same time as the senior Scotland touring party.
While Andy Robinson will take 28 players for a two-Test series, the Scotland juniors are allowed just 26 bodies for a five-match slogathon. They open their account with matches against Australia and South Africa in five days before facing the ever-physical Tongans. The Scots will then have two play-off matches to determine their final standing. By the end of the tournament the juniors will have played five of the most intense matches they have ever experienced spread over just 17 days.

This year the format of the competition has been changed, with a reduced number of teams competing and the introduction of relegation and promotion between this World Championship group and the lower ranked World Junior Trophy. While just one team is normally relegated, the fact that next year's World Championships are to be held in Italy could make life especially difficult for the Scots.

Italy face Japan in the final of this season's Junior Trophy today in Moscow and if they win they will be promoted automatically. However, if Japan win today's final both teams will be promoted to next year's championship (Italy as hosts), so necessitating two teams being relegated. The first and most important goal for the Scots is to avoid finishing in the bottom two places in Argentina and, as coach Eamon John explains, that isn't a given.

"I reckon we have the toughest pool, most definitely. Look at Wales (his own country of birth]. They play two island sides in Fiji and Samoa and in England's group (they have been paired with Argentina, France and Ireland] anyone can beat anyone on their day.

"However, for players that really want to test themselves against the very best, well, they won't get many opportunities to play against the Australians and South Africans in the course of their entire career so it's a great opportunity. It's like Jim Telfer said, if you want to be the best then you have to play the best. We want these World Championships to be the best experience possible for the players."

So far John has worked some minor miracles with the U20 squad. The team had not won a Six Nations match until last season when, in John's first season as head coach, they beat Italy, Ireland and Wales. This season was more difficult but the juniors still matched the senior side's results with a draw (against France) and a win (over Italy). Rumours suggest that the little Welshman has already turned down the chance to move into the professional game, but another successful tournament will see the clamour to have him involved gather ever more momentum.

At least he can call upon one of Scotland's rising stars in the form of Glasgow's new signing Duncan Weir, who escaped the all-encompassing embrace that football has on the west coast to make fast progress in the oval ball game. Weir was on the books of Celtic for a year as a 14-year-old but, when asked if the final decision to opt for rugby was a difficult one, the answer is ambiguous.

"Yes and no," is the reply. "I think that if I had stayed with football I'd be back at Kilmarnock now because that is where I started before I moved to Celtic and they were pretty keen to have me back. The problems arose because I was playing rugby for the school on a Saturday morning but I couldn't play any regional or representative rugby because it was held on a Sunday afternoon which clashed with my football."

Weir hails from Cambuslang and he comes across as a confident individual, especially for one so young; a typical gallus laddie. He has had two appearances off the bench for Glasgow this season and he played in the Scotland sevens squad in both Wellington and Las Vegas. However, such is the nature of the game that one of the Scotland U20 squad's most experienced players is still playing catch-up when compared with his likely opposite number in the opening game.

The Junior Wallaby fly-half Matt Toomua toured with Robbie Deans' senior Australia side last November and started the midweek match against the Cardiff Blues. All in, the Junior Wallabies squad has seven players with Super 14 experience against the Scots players who have watched more pro-rugby than they have played. Full-back Tom Brown and lock Rob Harley have done time on the pine for Edinburgh and Glasgow respectively while midfielders Alex Dunbar, Jonnie Kennedy and Weir himself all have at least some experience of professional rugby under their belts.

"It is going to be tough going," admits Weir, who many in the west see as a natural successor to the Cardiff-bound Dan Parks, "but we shouldn't be feart going into this tournament even if we are up against some of the best in the world. There is no point worrying about the opposition, we have to take our game plan and impose it upon them."

It's an admirable sentiment from the fly-half and if attitude alone could win matches then Weir would be a world-beater but that snarl needs to survive those difficult two opening matches. If it does, and that isn't a given, then this junior Scotland squad has enough talent to make a very decent fist of things thereafter.

ITINERARY

IRB Junior World Championship

(Argentina, 5-21 June)

Pool A: New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa, Wales.

Pool B: Argentina, England, France, Ireland.

Pool C: Australia, Scotland, South Africa, Tonga.

Scotland's fixtures

5 June: Australia (Santa Fe)

9 June: South Africa (Santa Fe)

13 June: Tonga (Parana)

17 June: Play-off match

21 June: Play-off match

Scotland U-20 squad

Forwards: David Denton, Michael Fedo, Adam Fedorciow, Grant Gilchrist, Robert Harley, George Hunter, Anthony Kent, Nicky Little, Robert McAlpine, Michael Maltman, Stuart McInally, Colin Philips, Calum Stidston-Nott, Alun Walker.

Backs: Alex Black, Tom Brown, Alex Dunbar, Dougie Fife, Oliver Grove, James Johnstone, Jonnie Kennedy, Callum MacBurnie, Mathew Scott, Michael Tait, Duncan Weir, Russell Weir.

This article was posted on 30-May-2010, 10:27 by Hugh Barrow.