Kelburne eager to repeat cup win over East Kilbride
SCOTLAND sign off their 2015 World Rugby under-20 Championship campaign at Viadana today with a rematch against Ireland determined to reverse the result of their earlier group game against the Irish and claim a highest ever finishing place of seventh.
The young Scots are already guaranteed to come away from this championship with a best finish of eighth position, but their form earlier this season in the Six Nations, where they were third, warrants better.
“We’re looking at the game as an opportunity for the players to do themselves justice. For this particular match against Ireland it’s all about standards and how we play the game. We haven’t played the game well. We’ve let teams in and that’s about individual skill sets,” stated the Scotland under-20 head coach, Sean Lineen.
“The Irish are tough, they’re streetwise, they’ve come through a pretty demanding structure and they know how to manage games over 80 minutes. We can do that as well. We’ve done it before. It’s just about consistency.
“The players have been really impressive in how they’ve approached this week. They know what they need to do and they’ve got to go out there and put it into practice as they did against Argentina.”
Scotland have kept the same backline that played against Argentina and Australia. In the pack, Murray Mccallum returns at prop and Lineen has opted to play the versatile Ally Miller at lock, giving Scotland useful mobility in the second row.
The experienced Neil Irvine-hess, who was the other option for second row, is at blindside flanker to play alongside skipper Jamie Ritchie at openside and Magnus Bradbury at No 8. Team: Scotland under-20 (v Ireland under-20): B Kinghorn (Edinburgh Rugby); R Nairn (Harlequins), A Coombes (London Scottish), P Kelly (Le Parc), Richard Galloway (University of Birmingham); R Hutchinson (Northampton Saints), B Vellacott (Gloucester/hartpury College); M Mccallum (Aberdeen Grammar Rugby), S James (Bedford Blues), Z Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors), S Cummings (Glasgow Warriors/glasgow Hawks), A Miller (Edinburgh Rugby), N Irvine-hess (Melrose), J Ritchie (Edinburgh Rugby), M Bradbury (Edinburgh Rugby). Subs: R Graham (Hawick), D Elkington (Watsonians), J Owlett (Exeter University), R Knott (Melrose), L Wynne (Stirling County), G Horne (Glasgow Hawks), Galbraith (Melrose), A Russell (Stirling County).
TBEFORE a ball had been bowled in this chilly 2015 season, they set their sights on finishing in the top three and Kelburne and East Kilbride are on course to meet their ambitious targets.
Sitting joint second, the pair have comfortably held their own against more fancied sides, Kelburne in their first season in the top flight, East Kilbride having been promoted a year earlier. Today one of them will emerge from their Whitehaugh clash as the principle challengers to leaders Clydesdale and it is the hosts who hold the psychological advantage following a Scottish Cup win against their rivals earlier in the month.
However, Qasim Sheikh, the Kelburne captain, will take nothing for granted and warned: “I am very aware of the challenge presented by EK and so are the lads. They have more than enough talent in their side to turn over anyone in this league on their day.
“But our lads are in good spirits and we are confident going into the game.
“I believe we can repeat the Scottish Cup victory but at the same time expect it to be a very tough game and we will need to play our best cricket.”
There were equally bullish noises from Sheikh’s counterpart Josh Johnston, who said: “Every game is a big one for us at the moment and we are loving it. I’m confident we can win as we have almost a totally different team from last time. If we take our chances with the ball then we will win.”
Kelburne have two enforced changes with talented youngster Jak O’connell on holiday and Matt Mcmillan injured, but replacements Alex Glimore and Ryan Morrow have been starring for the second XI in recent weeks.
East Kilbride are without former Saltires star Ross Lyons through injury but Harmanjit Singh returns to bolster the top order while Johnston is looking to Moneeb Iqbal to repeat the bowling heroics which saw him claim six wickets in last week’s win over Ferguslie.
Elsewhere, top entertains bottom at Titwood where Clydesdale will be on their guard against a Renfrew side seeking their first win.
The leaders are without Richie Berrington, who is on duty with Scotland, but player-coach Con de Lange, statistically the leading bowler in the Union this season, has returned from the T20 series in Ireland to play in the match.
Renfrew skipper Sai Majeed will be looking for his home-based stars to provide more support to professional Ahmad Said who scored almost half his side’s runs in last week’s defeat to West of Scotland.
West themselves are aiming to build on that first success when they welcome Dumfries to Hamilton Crescent. That, though, will be no easy task against a Nunholm outfit who are beginning to show glimpses of the form that carried them to the title three seasons ago.
Ferguslie have named an unchanged team for the visit to Langloan as they bid to bounce back from last week’s defeat to East Kilbride against a Drumpellier side who are also on the rebound from defeat after losing to Dumfries.
It is a similar story at Bothwell Castle where the 2013 champions Uddingston entertain Ayr, the team who claimed their title last season.
Meanwhile, having come up just short at Clydesdale a week ago, Ayr know they can ill-afford another defeat if they are to have any chance of a successful title defence.