Wasteful England made to pay by feisty Scots
PROP Finlay Richardson scored two tries as Scotland fought back from 17-7 down to destroy England’s hopes of a back-toback Grand Slam at Myreside.
Scotland had scored the first try of the match through Ewan Johnson, but England led by 10 at the break through converted tries from Tom Hardwick and Tom Seabrook, while Hardwick also sent over an earlier penalty.
Scotland hit back in an impressive second half with two tries from Richardson and a penalty try to earn their first win of the tournament and inflict a first defeat on England.
Head coach Steve Bates said: “It’s disappointing because we created a lot of opportunities and didn’t finish enough in the first half, we had the wind at our backs and we didn’t capitalise on it and didn’t turn that territorial advantage into points.
“I think the players have to understand that in international rugby you have to take opportunities and look after the ball, we made too many mistakes, maybe lost our cool a little bit and forced the game a little bit more than we should have.
“For a lot of these guys that would have been the first time they have been in that position but they will learn from that.
“The real test is to pick themselves up for France.”
It was a first 40 minutes that England dominated and despite being camped inside Scotland’s half for the opening 10 minutes, it wasn’t until Hardwick’s penalty on 11 minutes that an impression was made on the scoreboard.
Scotland were in front after Johnson bundled over from close range and Ross Thompson’s conversion took the score to 7-3.
Hardwick went over in the corner after a sharp break from Ollie Lawrence in midfield before converting his own score and debutant Seabrook also went over in the corner after collecting a superb crossfield kick from scrum half Rory Brand.
Seabrook was one of three debutants starting at U20 level for the first time, along with Lawrence and Cadan Murley, taking England’s total for the tournament to 20.
Jordan Olowofela was sin-binned 10 minutes into the second half and from the resulting penalty lineout Richardson bundled over for 12-17.
Scotland were then awarded a penalty try after a maul was illegally brought down in the corner as they took a 19-17 lead with 15 minutes remaining.
Beck Cutting also came on for his England debut and soon after Scotland had a bonus-point try with Richardson intercepting loose lineout ball to go over for his second.
Sean Reffell was also introduced to win his debut as Scotland held on for victory.
Scotland coach Stevie Scott said: “I’m very, very proud of the boys. For us to go and get heavily beaten by France and then come up with the response we got, against 23 full-time players, says a lot about the drive and desire to do well in a Scotland jersey.
“We’ve been working hard all week on what it means to play against England. It’s a different game to the other Six Nations fixtures and it has a different spice to it, so we really tried to get hold of that emotion all week.
“We were outstanding this evening. We had to unsettle them, and play on the edge of the game, and I thought we did that all night.
“We really worked on the maul, and that was outstanding this evening.
“It was really pleasing to see.”