Scotland on Sunday reports

Scots to battle with Ireland for ninth place

Published Date: 20 June 2010
By Alan Lorimer
HAVING played Tonga in back-to-back matches in the IRB Under-20 World Championship in Argentina, it will be something of a change for Scotland to be playing a different country in the final round at the Club Atletico Estudiantes, Paraná, tomorrow.
The Scots will face Ireland, their first northern hemisphere opponents, in this match to determine the overall ninth and tenth placings in the championship, and having defeated Tonga twice Scotland made sure they would not be scrapping to avoid relADVERTISEMENT

egation from the top tier tournament next year in Italy.

"Beating Tonga means that we keep Scotland in the top 10. That was our aim at the beginning of the tournament. If we had scored one more try in our first game against Tonga then we would have been in the top eight," said Scotland U20 head coach, Eamon John.

Ireland defeated Scotland in the final round of the Six Nations U20 championship at Dubarry Park in Athlone by a big margin. As Six Nations champions Ireland have much to prove after what has been a disappointing but in many ways an unlucky world championship, the Irish having lost to both France and Argentina by just three points in the pool games.

But in the semi-final they showed their worth with a 37-10 win over Samoa and it is their ability to score tries that will test the Scots. Scotland, however, have oiled their try-scoring mechanism with six tries in their last two games.

Scotland's pack, in which Rob Harley and Stuart McInally have excelled, has acquired a harder edge and with Duncan Weir controlling both the game and field position with his prodigious boot and kicking goals, the Scots now have some confidence in their own ability to put behind them that big defeat in Athlone and end their championship on a positive note.

At the other end of the table, defending champions New Zealand meet Australia in the final, while in the play-off for third and fourth positions England take on South Africa.

This article was originally posted on 20-Jun-2010, 06:27 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 20-Jun-2010, 06:29.