Shock Scotland U20s loss sees Uruguay clinch final date with Spain
Rugby in Scotland hit a new low on Tuesday when their promotion-chasing U20s team lost to Uruguay at the Junior World Trophy in Kenya. The Scots had been relegated from the Junior World Championship following their 12th-place finish at the 2019 tournament in Argentina.
The pandemic meant that it wasn’t until this year that the opportunity finally arose for them to try and win their way back into the age-grade top flight.
However, despite earlier pool successes over Zimbabwe and USA, the attempt by the fancied Scots to reach next Sunday’s Trophy final in Nairobi was quashed when they were ambushed 37-26 in their pool decider with the Uruguayans.
The surprise loss at Nyayo National Stadium means that Scotland, who finished the 2023 U20s Six Nations in fifth place ahead of Wales, will now contest third place at the Trophy against Samoa, who were beaten 28-10 by Spain in their Pool B decider.
Those results will see Uruguay and the Spanish clash in the tournament decider to decide who will secure promotion to next year’s Junior World Championship in South Africa at the expense of Japan, the team that finished in 12th place on July 14 following their loss to Italy at Paarl.
?? ¡El instante que selló la clasificación de Uruguay a la final del World Rugby U20 Trophy! pic.twitter.com/ebwKA34WQY
— ScrumRugby (@ScrumESPN) July 25, 2023
Elsewhere on match day three at the Trophy, Zimbabwe guaranteed their best-ever finish at the tournament with a stunning 38-37 win against the USA. They now face the hosts Kenya in the fifth-place final at the eight-team event. The Kenyans were 22-16 winners against Hong Kong China, who will now play the USA in the seventh-place play-off.
POOL A: Scotland 26 Uruguay 37
Uruguay started on the front foot in the final match of day three and after Juan Carlos Canessa had missed an early penalty, the full-back gave the scoring pass to Pedro Brum to touch down the first try in only the fifth minute. Canessa converted but missed another presentable penalty before re-finding his range to extend the Uruguayan lead to 10 points at the end of the first quarter.
Scotland hit back soon after as Eddie Erskine powered over from close range, but the second row was then sent to the sin bin, allowing Los Teritos to strike again. From the subsequent lineout, Uruguay set a driving maul rumbling towards the line and hooker Maximo Lamelas came up with his side’s second try.
As the time on Erskine’s sin bin ticked down, Los Teritos fly-half Icaro Amarillo produced a booming drop-goal to give his side a 20-7 lead. Scotland ate into that advantage before half-time, Corey Tait profiting from a lineout drive to score before Ben Afshar’s second conversion struck a post and went over.
Uruguay lost hooker Lamelas to a yellow card on the stroke of half-time but despite starting the second half a player light, it was Los Teritos who struck next. Following good work from Guillermo Juan Storace, Canessa fed Juan Gonzalez and the winger held off the attentions of several defenders to score in the right corner.
Tait scored his second try of the match soon afterwards, but Afshar missed the conversion and when Canessa struck a long-range penalty it gave Uruguay a 30-19 lead. Los Teritos lost a second player to the sin bin in the 59th minute as replacement Francisco Garcia was shown a yellow card, and it took Scotland less than a minute to capitalise as Erskine powered over from close range again.
Afshar converted to close the gap to four points, but Los Teritos refused to panic and scored again while still playing with 14. The impressive Storace slipped through an attempted tackle from Tait before sprinting over the try line. Canessa converted to give Uruguay an 11-point lead and although he missed a long-range penalty with around 10 minutes to go, they were able to close out a famous victory.
Scotland coach Kenneth Murray said: “Very poor today. Our game management was very poor and didn’t deserve to win the game. We didn’t manage the game well enough, we didn’t exit well enough, we didn’t transfer pressure and win enough territory. And then, when we did get the ball in the right areas we couldn’t keep hold of it, so a whole host of things. A really disappointing performance.”
POOL B: Spain 28 Samoa 10
Spain booked their place in the Trophy final with a scrappy 18-point victory over two-time champions Samoa. In a repeat of the 2016 final, Spain – making only their second appearance at the tournament – started as favourites, having won comfortably against Kenya and Hong Kong China. Samoa, winners in 2011 and 2016, only edged past the same Pool B opposition.
In a largely overcast Kenyan capital, Samoa’s Afa Moleli drilled a penalty from almost halfway to open the scoring. It was Spain, though, who enjoyed most of the early territory and possession but handling errors meant they only had Jacobo Ruiz Marcos’ 10th-minute try and a penalty from fly-half Beau Finnian Peart for a 10-3 lead after the first quarter.
A malfunctioning set-piece meant Samoa struggled to gain a foothold in the game but they were almost back in it on the half-hour mark when Moleli was tackled just short of the line after an intercept took him nearly the length of the field.
On their rare forays into the Spain 22, Samoa too were let down by their final pass and in the 46th minute, Spain made them pay. After a 50-22 kick to touch, No8 Manex Ariceta Maestro emerged from the back of a driving lineout to dive over and make it 15-3. Then, with Samoa starting to get their offloading game going, Spain delivered the killer blow in the 56th minute, breaking clear to send inside centre Daniel Cantanzaro Omati over.
Even when Spain were reduced to 14 players after repeated infringements at the breakdown, Samoa couldn’t take full advantage. A try from replacement Royce Billy Jr Umutaua reduced the deficit, but Samoa followed it up with two careless yellow cards of their own. Spain spurned several more try-scoring opportunities but did add two more penalty kicks to ensure Samoa never got within two converted scores.
Comments on RugbyPass
The Harlequins team must be in minus figures. Did the reporter actually watch the game?
2 Go to commentsHow on earth did Walker escape a red card? Not dangerous? Dupont has his face in a mask earlier this season. Shocking decision. What is the point of TMOs? We had the Fassi ‘non-penalty try’ yesterday and now this.
2 Go to commentsCould have been a different result but yet again French tv able to affect the result by not showing the very clear high shot on harlequin centre if this would have been on a French player would have been on screen at least five times
2 Go to commentsAmazing. The losing team’s ratings are higher than the winning team’s. Mallia definitely didn’t deserve a y. What game were you watching? Should have got a w or an x. ADP hardly featured in that second half. At one point I wondered when he’d been subbed. Seems to me as if he gets an automatic 9 just for getting onto the team sheet.
2 Go to commentsI’m sorry. That second half was far from enthralling. It was painful to watch.
2 Go to commentsVery generous! If you’d missed the game, reading this you’d conclude that it was the Quins front row that cost them the game. Marler getting a blanket 6 for his demented contribution to the game. Puzzling.
2 Go to commentsCan’t see Toulouse beating Leinster at this rate.
7 Go to commentsADP was having a very average game until winning that penalty for Toulouse, sticking his big head in the way. “The head of God”?
7 Go to commentsHarlequins doing their best to do as little damage as possible with all the possession. Looks like they skipped catch and pass drills this week.
7 Go to commentsSeeing pictures of Jacques high-fiving it with Irish players breaks my heart. Too soon. I need more time.
1 Go to commentsquins is all over the place. The minute they get the ball they panic. Quins can still win tho just need to win all rucks otherwise just don't bother.
7 Go to commentsGreat wins for the male & female kiwi sides. Ireland not far away..
1 Go to commentsWhy is this dude getting so much coverage? Usually knobs like this get cancelled.
2 Go to commentsWow. What was that? A 3 million word meandering article about what exactly?
2 Go to commentsNice piece of writing. And yes the Sharks pulled a rabbit from the hat and were a little lucky with that penalty try that wasn’t given… however the Sharks (with their resources) should be way more consistent and should be putting teams like Claremont away for breakfast. I expect more from them and hope they kick on now.
8 Go to commentsJust what the Sharks needed to get things going in the right direction Defence on the outside really creates havoc for the whole team and needs to be addressed.
8 Go to commentsWell done guys both teams will be ready to play knockout rugby.
1 Go to commentsSurprised that Ramos isn't starting at 15. But what a squad of galacticos!
2 Go to commentsWhy is it a snub? What journalistic garbage is that? Sure the guy is a great player, but there are plenty of loose forwards and not all of them can be Springboks. Also, I know of no-one who doubts Rassie’s judgment. South Africa has a conveyor belt of loose forwards that just keeps producing, so the competition is intense. I certainly wish him well, but there is no entitlement and there is no snub.
17 Go to commentsSkelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
6 Go to comments