"The pressure's on them" says Murray ahead of Scotland U20s clash with England
Yesterday at 01:00 AM
Scotland U20s head coach Kenny Murray says that the onus is on current holders England to deliver as his side travel to Newcastle for Friday night’s crucial third round tie.
With defeat in the opening two rounds, Murray acknowledged that facing the world and Six Nations champions on their own turf represents “a big challenge”.
However Murray believes there is “no pressure on us” adding “the pressure’s on them to go out and perform the way they’ve performed in the last few games” referring to their 19-3 win over Ireland and 21-13 victory against France.
The side received a welcome boost however as Senior cap Freddy Douglas makes his return from injury to slot into the back-row. Douglas’ place in the squad valued just as much off the park, as it is on by the head coach.
“Just physically being in the environment, he just lifts everybody,” waxed Murray describing how the Edinburgh youngster “leads by example, with his intent he brings others with him. He sets standards that others follow.”
Douglas is one of five changes with Billy Allen on the bench. Instead he will be joined by blindside flanker Ollie Duncan (in for Christian Lindsay who drops out of the 23) with Loughborough’s Bart Godsell in at second-row as Charlie Moss finds the bench. Jake Shearer comes in at loose-head for replacement Oli McKenna and finally Seb Stephen at hooker sees Joe Roberts dropped.
The changes come off the back of a difficult couple of weeks having dropped a half-time lead to Italy, a game Murray says they “should have won” before conceding four tries in just over 20 minutes against Ireland.
Despite a three try resurgence they would ultimately fall away 33-15. Although Murray is keen to draw positives considering that same fixture ended 82-7 in 2023 and 36-0 last year.
“The Six Nations is a tough environment. In 2023 it was (Sam) Prendergast and (Brian) Gleeson (now a regular in Munster’s first-team)” said the head coach, but “the gap is definitely closing. The frustration for us against Italy and Ireland is that we should have done better. We’ve got to be honest with ourselves.”
A fallow week has allowed to the side to take stock and recover from an intense start to the tournament.
“You need that time in between to get over your bumps and bruises and refocus a bit as well. It’s not just physically tough, it’s also mentally tough.”
Time well spent as the side used the gap to pick up a few lessons from players who are well versed in its intensity.
“The Scotland-based boys trained with Glasgow Warriors on the Tuesday and then with Scotland on the Thursday”, Murray adding that they “had two good training experiences, which the boys enjoyed because you get challenged training at a higher level against Duhan van der Merwe and these guys.”
Although victory would represent the biggest upset of this year’s tournament by some distance, Murray was head coach in 2023 when Scotland led Friday night’s opponents 36-31 with just over ten minutes to go before going down 41-36 at the Stoop.
“We should have beaten them,” remarked Murray. Lessons learnt the focus is firmly on the future for this Scotland side.
“This week we’ve talked about starting fast. Staying really disciplined and not making mistakes in the right areas,” he finished. “We know we can go and play against teams like England. We’ve shown before that we can compete.”
Scotland: Brown, Moncreiff, Ventisei (c), Yule, Watson, Urwin, Cowan, Shearer, Stephen, Blyth-Lafferty, Godsell, Halkon, Duncan, Douglas, Logan
Replacements: Roberts, McKenna, Stewart, Moss, Allen, MacArthur, Waugh, Wolfenden
How to watch: Kick-off is on Friday at 19:15pm on BBC iPlayer.
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