Lineen feels ‘gutted’ but ‘proud’ as young Scots slip to defeat
● Heavyweight opponents are rattled before snatching victory from home side
Scotland came frustratingly close to completing a hattrick of home wins against England in last night’s Six Nations under-20 international at Myreside but ultimately a massive effort by the home side fell just short.
The young Scots, however, should be proud of a performance that rattled England and which almost resulted in victory. Scotland, for most of the match, played at a much faster pace than their heavyweight opponents, but a crucial lapse in defence in the first half cost them the game.
Outstanding for Scotland in attack was full-back Ollie Smith while in the forwards, Calum Henderson was ubiquitous and back rows Conor Boyle and Rory Darge further enhanced their credentials. Credit must also go to the front row who engineered three tighthead strikes.
“I’m gutted for them.” said Scotland coach Sean Lineen. “I’m really proud of them. They never gave up. They had a couple of really classy players at nine and ten and that made a difference,” he added.
Scotland looked the more dynamic of the two sides in the early exchanges but England had the first chance of points only for Manu Vunipola to miss his attempted penalty kick.
Scotland had several chances to capitalise on mistakes by a penalty-prone England but their attempts at driving successive line-outs from kicks to the corner were thwarted. Then, when England were again penalised, skipper Darge went for the easy option, Nathan Chamberlain duly delivering the three points.
At the restart Scotland gave away a penalty allowing England to kick to the corner then drive the line-out, resulting in a try by hooker Theo Dan and the conversion by Vunipola. Minutes later Scotland engineered a similar score for a try by hooker Ewan Ashman, Chamberlain converting for the Scots to regain the lead.
Towards the end of the first half Scotland were drawn into an arm wrestling game with England and when the visitors released the ball, giant lock Ben Donnell sent full-back Freddie Steward in for a try, again converted by Vunipola for a 14-10 interval advantage.
Following the break, Chamberlain kicked to the corner to give the Scots a chance to drive a line-out that led to a penalty try and a 17-14 lead after England collapsed the maul.
England made a raft of replacements which led to a more purposeful running game and a try by centre Connor Doherty, converted by Vunipola, produced the final points of the match.