Basic errors undid Scotland under-20’s efforts to play an expansive game as they went down 33-0 to South Africa in their opening IRB Junior World Championship match at the Stadio Plebiscito in Italy tonight.
Historically fixtures against the Boks have produced some fearsome scorelines, with their predecessors losing 73-0 last season and 72-3 before that however, despite the reduction, the mood in the camp post match was indicative of the age-grade’s frustrations, with the apparent progress bringing little comfort.
Speaking after the match, head coach Peter Wright said: “We’re extremely disappointed with the basic errors and turnover ball. I think that was more like a 20-point game but we gifted them a couple of scores and didn’t take advantage of the wide channels as well we could have.
“Our defensive effort was outstanding. I’m very proud of the attitude and determination and they we harassed a very good South Africa side into making mistakes but, while we managed to make a number of good line breaks, our support lines weren’t good enough to capitalise.
“We now have to put this game behind us and iron out the technical and tactical errors before we play England in four days time.”
Two tries from forwards Fracois Venter and Arno Botha on the 14th and 34th minutes were interpserced by a score-ticking selection of penalty kicks from stand-off Johan Goosen to give the Boks a 21-0 lead at half-time.
Venter and Botha were back on the scoresheet after the interval with brace completing scores with Goosen adding another conversion to complete the scoring.
FULL TIME: 33-0
Scotland will now face England in match two of the IRB Junior World Championship on Tuesday 14 June at the Stadio Comunale di Monigo in Treviso (kick-off 6.10pm local time).
SCOTLAND UNDER-20 TEAM: Stuart Hogg; Sam Atkin, Mark Bennett, Danny Gilmour, Glenn Bryce; Duncan Weir CAPTAIN, Sean Kennedy; Alex Allan, David Cherry, Colin Phillips, Mitchell Todd, Robert McAlpine, Jamie Swanson, Alex Spence, James Tyas
Substitutes: Richard Ferguson on for Cherry (64’), George Hunter on for Phillips (33’), Robin Hislop on for Allan (60’), Mitchell Eadie on for Swanson (57’), Jamie Stevenson on for Kennedy (51’), Kerr Gossman on for Weir (48’), Hamish Watson on for Spence (37’)

This article was posted on 10-Jun-2011, 23:20 by Hugh Barrow.