UNDER-20s

SEAN Lineen has congratulated his Scotland Under-20 team for keeping their composure in the face of extreme provocation by their Italian counterparts during Friday night’s 38-17 victory at Broadwood.

The hosts raced into a 31-0 lead after 45 minutes through tries from Darcy Graham, Andrew Simmers, Tom Dod and Matt Fagerson – but then conceded three scores to make it a little too close for comfort, before a second touchdown from Graham finally secured the win.

“It was a great learning experience for the players. The Italians were very physical, and ended up getting a few red cards – which gave us breathing space. I’m very proud of the guys keeping their composure against some of the stuff which was going on,” he said.

“It’s a new group – very young, very inexperienced and they’ve worked really hard – so it was great to see them score a few tries. They did fall away a bit during the second half because they are not used to that sort of aggression from much bigger men, but they got over the line in the end.”

Next stop is the Junior World Cup in Georgia which starts t the end of May, and Lineen says that preparation for that will start immediately.

“We need to get fitter and the players know that, so we’ve got a really comprehensive programme over the next nine weeks which is going work them really hard,” he explained.