The Scotsman reports

Under-20s: Peter Wright reveals 'experiment'

Published Date: 09 March 2011
By DAVID FERGUSON
SCOTLAND under-20s coach Peter Wright has acknowledged that the Six Nations Championship remains an experimental testing ground for his players to try to catch up with other nations ahead of the Junior World Cup in Italy this summer.
The U20s have followed the senior side in losing their three matches this year, struggling to compete with opponents' physicality and professional rugby experience. On Friday night they face potentially the biggest and most physical team in the championship in England (8pm kick-off, live on Sky Sports).

Two of their brightest talents, Stuart Hogg and Duncan Weir, have suffered injuries playing for Glasgow but George Hunter, the Glasgow Hawks prop, returns as captain, Filton College youngster Mitch Eadie comes into the second row, and Stuart Edwards from Stirling County retains the No 10 jersey. Boroughmuir prop Nick Fraser, Duncan Finnie of Watsonians and Edinburgh Accies scrum-half James Munro could all make their debuts off the bench.

Wright said: "England will have players who have been regulars in the Premiership, and other countries use pro rugby and a good standard of club rugby to find out about their players earlier, but this is the reality for us; we find out about players here.

"The most important thing for us is not to be relegated out of the top 12 in the World Cup (Scotland are ranked tenth], so what we need to do between now and June is find the best 26 guys to take there so we're having to use the Six Nations to experiment.

"I'd love the process to start at 16 and 17, but we can't get our boys into strong competition at that age. A lot of our boys are playing Premier One, but the French team we played would beat every team in our Premier One."

Scotland Under 20s: (v England at Newbury, Friday, 8pm) G Bryce (Heriot's), M Doneghan (Glasgow/Stirling County), M Bennett (Glasgow/Ayr), H Leonard (Edinburgh/Boroughmuir), K Gossman (Glasgow/Glasgow Hawks), S Edwards (Stirling County), J Stevenson (Westcombe Park); R Hislop (Edinburgh/Boroughmuir), D Cherry (Team Northumbria), G Hunter (Glasgow/Glasgow Hawks, captain), M Eadie (Filton College), R McAlpine (West of Scotland), A Spence (Heriot's), H Watson (Leicester), J Tyas (Bath). Substitutes: R Ferguson (Melrose), N Fraser (Boroughmuir), A Kirkland (Glasgow Hawks), M Todd (Nottingham), D Finnie (Watsonians), J Munro (Edinburgh Accies), S Atkin (Edinburgh Accies).

This article was originally posted on 9-Mar-2011, 22:56 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 9-Mar-2011, 22:57.