Young Scotland take impressive win at Broadwood.
Like the Women’s team, Scotland’s U20s had never beaten their English counterparts over the period of their Championships, but with several players carried over from last season, they had as good a chance as they were ever going to get on Friday night at Broadwood.
This match was to be an entirely different affair to the match which had just finished 32-0 to England. You could hear some of the hits from half the length of the pitch for a start….
England weathered an early Scottish assault, but they kept the play to the outside of their 22 before launching their own counter attack on Scots’ lines.
Nine minutes in and ‘hands in the ruck’ gave the visitors their first chance at points which No. 10, Joe Simmonds sees over for the 3-0 lead.
From the restart, England were back up in the opposition 22 and making ground, but couldn’t quite find a way through the home side defence. Trying to get the ball wide to the wings, the final pass ends up in the hands of full back, Blair Kinghorn. With 70+ metres to go, and little in the way of opposition, the Edinburgh player sets off. He gets his pass away to centre, Rory Hutchinson, just before he’s tackled and the two carry on. England wing, Ollie Thorley does well to get back, but Hutchinson’s offload, gets to Kinghorn and it’s a straight run in for the full back, who dives over in the corner for the try. No. 10, Adam Hastings misses the difficult conversion, but, with 16 minutes played, Scotland are in a narrow 5-3 lead.
The Scots are starting to come into their own and, despite a couple of English penalties, the next ‘nearly score’, comes from the home side as an attack down the left wing is only just brought down short.
Around the half hour mark, England once again threaten the Scots’ line and a couple of penalties get them within touching distance. However, some fine defensive play, keeps them out and they settle for a penalty four minutes from the break, which Simmonds sees over to retake the lead 6-5.
With 40 minutes looming, England fail to score from a penalty on half way and Kinghorn clears. As the, metaphorical in this case, clock ticks down to half time, Scotland make another attack down the wing, this one again pulled up short – and potentially wiping out this reporter and a colleague in the process – but the ball is quickly recycled and a couple of rucks later, prop, Murray McCallum barges over under the posts for Scotland’s second try. Kinghorn can’t miss and the referee blows for half time with Scotland ahead 12-6.
England get into the Scots half following the restart, but are not able to make much progress as the Scottish defence, if anything, is a lot more fiery than in the first, and it’s soon back to the English 22 where a couple of close calls cause some concern for the visitors.
With just over 50 minutes played, Scotland are causing all sorts of problems for England, but a couple of mistakes give the visiting side chances to get clear, but powerful tackling soon wins the ball back, leading to the next score. Hutchinson makes a run across the front of the defence, but there is no way through and as he is about to get thrown into touch, he launches the ball out of the back of his hand, more in hope than anything else. However, the ball falls to friendly hands and flanker, Jamie Ritchie, draws in a couple of defenders.
Quick ball from the ruck sees lock, Scott Cummings, with the ball and the second row blasts his way over the line for the third home try of the match. Kinghorn just misses the conversion but it is 17-6 to Scotland.
By this time the English team are in a fair amount of disarray and there’s a lot of shouting and swearing going on as the attempt to regroup in the face of, probably, stronger opposition than they’ve had to face from a Scotland side in the past.
However, it’s not to be, and three minutes later, the fourth Scottish try seals the match. A line out about 10 metres out falls to flanker, Matt Smith, who fires himself through the pile of bodies and, with only England’s Thorley in his way, it’s a no-contest in the fight for the line. Kinghorn slots home the kick this time around and, with 25 minutes left, the score is 24-6 to Scotland.
The rest of the match is fairly evenly balanced and England do get within a few metres of the Scottish try line, but the game belongs to the home side and the referee blows time on a historic win for the young Scots
Images from the match will appear here over the next few days.
