Iain Morrison in Scotland on Sunday

Scotland are in a more modest game, the ninth and 10th place play-off against Argentina's "Pumitas". Peter Wright's under-20 team have at least accomplished what they set out to achieve at the start by avoiding relegation. A confident 30-11 victory over Tonga last week ensured that Italy play the islanders today to decide who swaps places with Samoa, the winners of the second-string competition earlier in the year.

While the young Scots have won just one game out of four, they have made enormous strides since being taken to the cleaners 56-8 by England during the Six Nations. The Scots lost 33-0 to South Africa but, against the eventual finalists England, they were hanging for a bonus point at 25-18 until two tries in the final three minutes saw their opponents pull away to win by 39-18. Against Ireland the Scots were just three points adrift until a lack of concentration in the final ten minutes saw the Irish repeat their Six Nations victory. Overall this squad has made significant progress and has never hoisted the white flag - unlike Wales, who leaked a whopping 92 points against New Zealand.

A good deal of the credit goes to coach Wright, whose biggest coup occurred back in Scotland. The former Scotland and British Lions prop fought hard to ensure that his former Glasgow Hawks' stand-off Duncan Weir, now a full-time professional with Glasgow, was included in the squad. Having such an authoritative figure in such a key role has done wonders for the confidence of the squad overall. 

Weir now sits fifth in the all-time under-20 points scorers list after two years at this age group and he has the chance to nudge higher up the rankings should he add to his 80-point tally against Argentina this afternoon. 

He said: "After being held to nothing against South Africa it was good to get a high scoring game against Tonga."

Weir, who contributed 20 of his team's 30 points, added: "We could have done better in some of the earlier games.

Obviously we were thrilled to be so close to England and we had our chances to snatch a win in both that game and the one against Ireland but, ultimately, we're disappointed not to have done better than we did."

The Scotland skipper has started every one of his side's matches in this tournament and he reckons it ranks alongside the Celtic League for pace and intensity, with the possible exception of the contact area where the laws of physics ensure bigger bodies inflict more damage. 

For a man who nearly missed an invitation to the party, Weir seems to have gained a great deal and inspired a group of players who may have surprised themselves. Giant second row Rob McAlpine has been a standout at the lineout. Stirling County scrum-half Sean Kennedy was a revelation against England and Loughborough University prop Alex Allan has helped steady the scrum. And Leicester Tiger Hamish Watson is one of those flankers who is seemingly tied to the ball by an invisible piece of elastic. 

"But this shouldn't be about highlighting individuals," says Weir after doing exactly that. "Everyone has chipped in and made a contribution to this squad. This is about proving that this group of players can be competitive at this level and I think we have done that."

Whether Scotland will compete at all next year is still up in the air. Ireland are pulling out of this tournament with immediate effect while Scotland and Wales are reportedly thinking of following their lead. The SRU declined to confirm or deny whether they would send an under-20 squad to the JWC in South Africa next season, perhaps to exert some extra pressure on the IRB over the issue of player welfare. Asking youngsters to play five games in 17 days at the fag end of a ten-month season is brutal, unless and until the 26-man limit on squad numbers is increased.

He may have appeared in every match but one man remains adamant that this Italian venture has done him no harm. "It's a fantastic tournament," Weir enthuses. "The players enjoy it, the coaches enjoy it and so does everyone involved. It's the only opportunity to play the big southern hemisphere teams at this age grade and we get to travel to countries like Argentina (last year) and Italy to compete."

Results/Fictures

Super 15 play-off: 1st round
Crusaders 36 Sharks 8

TODAY
JUNIOR WORLD CUP, ITALY

11/12th place play-off: Tonga v Italy (11am, Rovigo)

9/10th place play-off: Scotland v Argentina (1.10pm, Rovigo)

7/8th place play-off: Wales v Ireland (11am, Treviso)

5/6th place play-off: Fiji v South Africa (1.10pm, Treviso)

3/4th place play-off: France v Australia (4pm, Padova)

Final: England v New Zealand (6.10pm, Padova)

This article was originally posted on 26-Jun-2011, 06:39 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 26-Jun-2011, 07:22.