Richardson says U20s can thrive after shock victory

Tighthead prop Finlay Richardson believes there is a lot more to come from the Scotland under-20 team after his two tries helped them to a landmark win over England at the weekend.

Prior to the 24-17 Six Nations victory at Myreside on Friday night, Scotland had only beaten the English at this age-grade level once in 14 attempts.

They also headed into the game on the back of heavy losses to Wales and France earlier in the month and with members of the coaching and backroom staff suspended while an off-field incident is investigated by Scottish Rugby.

However, after former Scotland and British & Irish Lions stand-off John Rutherford presented them with their jerseys, things just clicked.

With 11 minutes to go, Scotland were 19-17 up when Richardson, the 19-year-old Edinburgh Accies player, caught the ball some 15 metres from the England line.

He said: “It is a scary thought when you get that ball and think ‘I could score the winning try here’, but the main thing in my head was don’t drop the ball in front of all these people. I was determined to get over the line and see out the game.

“After the France game we looked at the way we were playing and we knew that we had to play with more intensity. All last week in training we had talked about being aggressive from the first minute and we did just that. We can now build from here.”