Television spotlight on under-21 side

ALAN CHRISTIE AND GARY HEATLY

SCOTLAND, enjoying their best season in the Under-21 Six Nations Championship, will be seeking to finish with a flourish when they go into tonight’s game against their English counterparts at Northampton.

In their final match of the campaign, the Scots are chasing their third victory, which would elevate them into third place in the table.

Almost all the players are from Scottish Premiership clubs, and although they have already coped with the demands of playing in France before highly partisan fans, they now take on an impressive England side at Franklin’s Gardens in front of the Sky cameras.

It will be a TV debut for most and manager John Jeffrey said: "This will be the first exposure of the lads to the watching public. They have beaten Ireland and Italy and we have banged the drum about that but there were not huge numbers at those games. An awful lot of Scots rugby fans will judge the under-21 season on what they see on the box tonight.

"England like ourselves have won two and lost two, but their wins have come in their most recent games so they have their confidence, whereas ours took a knock when Wales beat us."

The Scots are also playing for places in the squad of 26 that will be selected for the Under-21 World Cup in Argentina in two months’ time.

• The Scotland sevens side are seeded eighth for the IRB World Cup Sevens tournament in Hong Kong which begins today. The Scots are placed alongside favourites New Zealand, Tonga, Ireland, Korea and USA in pool A. Scotland face Ireland first.

Scotland have competed in all four IRB events so far this season, winning the plate in Wellington, and are targeting at least the quarter-finals this weekend.

Scotland Under-21s: A Nash (Watsonians); B Addison (Stirling County), N De Luca (Heriot’s), G Law (Hawick), S Manning (Ayr); D Blair (Sale), A McFarlane (GHA); S Corsar (Aberdeen GSFP), R Ford (Borders), W Blacklock (Hawick), I Nimmo (Heriot’s), S Tomes (Newcastle), C White (Stirling County), N Cochrane (Watsonians, capt), S Forrest (Glasgow Hawks). Subs: S Lawrie (Watsonians), S Fenwick (Ayr), J Beattie (Glasgow Rugby), G Strang (Aberdeen GSFP), R Snedden (Currie), B Di Rollo (Watsonians), D Flockhart (Currie).

Scotland sevens squad (for IRB Rugby World Cup Sevens, Hong Kong, 18-20 March): M Lee (The Army), D Gray (Gala, capt), A Strokosch (Edinburgh), K Brown (Borders), O Brown (Boroughmuir), K Sinclair (Glasgow Hawks), A Turnbull (Borders), C Gregor (Watsonians), C MacRae (Borders), R Reid (London Irish), C Laidlaw (Jed-Forest), J Blackwood (Watsonians).

TODAY’S GAMES

Under-21 Six Nations: England v Scotland (7.30); Italy v France (6.45); Wales v Ireland (7.00).

Women’s Six Nations: Wales v Ireland (7.15).

Celtic League: Munster v Ulster (7.00); Neath-Swansea Ospreys v Newport-Gwent Dragons (7.05).

IRB World Cup Sevens (Hong Kong): Pool A: Ireland v Scotland; U

This article was posted on 18-Mar-2005, 08:19 by Hugh Barrow.