Scotland U20s must 'silence crowd' in Paris – Douglas
Yesterday at 12:13 PM
Scotland U20s forward Freddy Douglas says his side will look to keep the French fans quiet in their bid to pull off an upset in Paris, their final match of the Six Nations campaign.
Scotland were 27-12 winners against Wales at the Hive, but the Stade Jean-Bouin holds a 20,000 capacity, which Douglas says “can be seen as a bit daunting”.
However the captain says one of the key talking points has been not giving the baying crowd anything to celebrate.
“Obviously you want to go in and be dominant, try to score first because it will probably put their heads down and the crowd won’t be with them,” he said.
“But then also just keeping the points between us really low, we can’t let them get ahead and let them gain confidence”, adding “because if they gain confidence then it will just spiral.”
Despite currently sitting bottom, Scotland remain just three points off third place Wales, albeit France represent a sizeable obstacle to climbing up the table.
Cédric Laborde’s players have won three of their four games, and could still claim their first title since 2018 should England suffer an unlikely defeat to Wales tonight.
Despite the difficult task before them, Scotland’s calm and disciplined performance against the Welsh despite facing wave after wave of attack, should stand them in good stead.
“We never broke shape or broke out of the system, which I think showed how level-headed were. We didn’t want to jump out or get scared and we kept really composed,” said Douglas, who scored two tries on the night.
“Then having the first ten minutes in the second half, Wales really came at us and being able to survive that and go on to win the game, it was really impressive.”
Having recently returned from injury, Douglas has been quick to make himself a nightmare for the opposition, sitting second in the charts for breakdown steals (5), after just two games.
“I wanted to come back and make a big impact for the 20s,” he said. “I didn’t want to come back not be seen. That was just my real big goal, to continue where I left off and then hopefully kick on after the Six Nations.”
The glue of an impressive back row featuring Reuben Logan and Oliver Duncan, Douglas is pleased with the way the trio are harmonising.
“I think all three of us have great chemistry. We’re all very different players but I think we knit together quite well. I really loved getting to know the boys.”
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