Townsend shines but young Scots are well beaten

Christian townsend marked the occasion of his first start for scotland U-20s with an early try, but the teenage stand-off — who is the son of scotland and Lions coach Gregor — couldn’t inspire a famous victory over the auld enemy. Playing alongside Murray redpath — son of Bryan, his father’s old half-back partner in the senior scotland team at the turn of the century — young townsend had several impressive moments with ball in hand. But the boys in blue ultimately failed to make the most of the scoring opportunities they had worked so hard to engineer. the excellent ollie Leatherbarrow also burrowed home for a scottish try midway through the second half, but five relatively easy scores for england through Jack van Poortvliet, Fin smith, deago Bailey, sam riley and arthur relton saw the red rose brigade claim a comfortable win. to add insult to injury, english stand-off smith — who kicked three conversions — is the grandson of tom elliot, a scotland and Lions legend of the 1950s. You would imagine that the Murrayfield scouting network has already been in touch with the youngster about switching allegiances as he moves into the senior game. ‘i’m a glass half-full man,’ said head coach sean Lineen afterwards. ‘there were some really good stuff there. they played with a lot of heart and a lot of passion. But we didn’t take our chances again. ‘we were in the 22 a few times but didn’t convert pressure into points. that’s frustrating. ‘at the other end, we gave england a number of soft tries. when we made mistakes, they scored tries. it was too easy for them.’ Lineen wouldn’t be drawn on whether redpath and townsend will start at half-back again when scotland play their third match of this six nations against italy next thursday. he did, however, praise both players for the way they have conducted themselves during the championship so far. ‘they are really coachable, good lads,’ he said. ‘Murray has been thrust into it and he has done really well, he is certainly not fazed by it, and he has good skills. ‘they are just learning the game. there were mistakes there but what i really like about them is that they just get on with it. ‘speaking after the game, we know we need to lift standards off the field as well,’ he added. ‘his is an inexperienced group, but we can’t use that as an excuse. we need to get better, and i know we will.’