Unner Twennies

[General Zod]

I see the U-20 6 Nations squad is out. Two lads whom I hope make it are Auchtermuchty’s own Kwagga van Niekerk and Teddy “swing low sweet” Leatherbarrow.

Other than that, does anyone know much about any of them? The boy van Niekerk looks decent on YouTube, but so would “Tackling technique with Owen “T-Rex” Farrell”.

[Big D]

I don't know much but a chap called "wee_weegie" on PR seems to know a bit more about them:
"Mclean, Boyle and Blain have all be travelling reserves for Edinburgh and been training with them for the majority of the season, back rower Jack Mann has also begun to train with them over the past couple of weeks. Back Row will be one of the stand outs of the 20s game but could’ve been unbelievable if Rory Darge hadn’t of picked up an injury for Melrose in the past weeks ruling him out the competition.
Back three is also very exiting, Matt Davidson narrowly missed out on 20s last year having played aye 1st Xv all season and ended up moving to London Scottish this season ans has been performing evtreamly well, mainly a 15 but can do a job as a utility back. Jack Blain And Rufus Mclean both coming back from injury but will be match fit for the beginning of the comp, but unfortunately the fast physical Lomond Macpherson who’s impressed when playing in the prem this season ans for Edinburgh 20s has been ruled out the comp with and ankle injury."

[General Zod]

Is the Italy match on tv?

[Cameo]

U20s and women both lost

[sharvey44]

U20s and women both lost

Watched a few minutes of the women's game. Just before half time the Italians got 2 yellows. The women failed to make anything of that which is criminal.

[Tobylerone]

No shortage of effort tonight..
But an almost impossible task against a (mostly) full time pro. English team.

[switchskier]

U18 on TV (freesports) against Italy at the minute. Scrum getting monstered and defense not great but backrow has a few turnovers. Scrumhalf looks nippy.

[switchskier]

U18 on TV (freesports) against Italy at the minute. Scrum getting monstered and defense not great but backrow has a few turnovers. Scrumhalf looks nippy.

On freesports again, this time against Ireland. Getting bullied up front but there is some cutting edge in the backs. Living off scraps though.

[whatisthejava]

Beat them 42-40 with last minute try

[whatisthejava]

Well lost to SA , NZ and Georgia

Actually competitive against all 3 and propbabbly a little unlucky against Georgia but when it came aclose game Scotland cant deal with a big pack being a dick to it

IIts fine being skillful but some of the basic skills just are not good enough to deal with your scrum giving away a penalty every time

Scotland had numerous chances to win it but took the wrong option or forward pass every time

[General Zod]

Have just caught up with this. A disappointing turnaround in the game.

I know they’re basically just youngsters learning their trade, but given the disparity in resources, it’s not a good result. Yes, it’s a one-off match, but for 3 matches in a row our performance has tailed off significantly - perhaps we should look at the conditioning and why wasn’t this anticipated?

Also, iirc, a lot more of the Georgians are signed up by French teams - are any of our youngsters doing likewise? Challenging themselves out with the SRU “development” system would appear to be something seriously worth considering if their conditioning and consistent bottom half finishes are anything to go by.

Ach, it’s just a moan really - they’re just young and I get the view that “success” while we have just 2 pro club teams is having a few players graduate each year. However, I would question whether the results set players off in a culture of mediocrity. They don’t win a lot and nothing seems to change in that regard.

[Big D]

Have just caught up with this. A disappointing turnaround in the game.

I know they’re basically just youngsters learning their trade, but given the disparity in resources, it’s not a good result. Yes, it’s a one-off match, but for 3 matches in a row our performance has tailed off significantly - perhaps we should look at the conditioning and why wasn’t this anticipated?

Also, iirc, a lot more of the Georgians are signed up by French teams - are any of our youngsters doing likewise? Challenging themselves out with the SRU “development” system would appear to be something seriously worth considering if their conditioning and consistent bottom half finishes are anything to go by.

Ach, it’s just a moan really - they’re just young and I get the view that “success” while we have just 2 pro club teams is having a few players graduate each year. However, I would question whether the results set players off in a culture of mediocrity. They don’t win a lot and nothing seems to change in that regard.

It is a difficult one. We have had players move abroad but the ones that do often make little impact. The scrum half at Melrose was on the books of Clermont IIRC and there was a second row in France and I think he is back here playing prem 1 or whatever it is called now.

With this age group, it is worth mentioning that they have lost Cam Redpath and Frazer Dingwall who were involved in Scotland under 18s. Yes there were 2 years to replace them but a shallow pool can't replace two very good players easily.

I think the SRU need to and to be fair are looking at ways to improve the standards of rugby these guys are playing but I would like to see them take a chance on the quality younger players and get them involved sooner on full pro deals. They did it with Kinghorn and Ritchie and there is no reason they can't do it with the likes of a Cam Redpath and Frazer Dingwall who are now lost to England.

We also need to take a look at how we harvest front rows. By all accounts the talent from this squad is in the back row and back 3. Our back row stocks are already decent, front row not so much.

[General Zod]

Losing again. 14-7 to Italy. Looks like a weather break or something at the moment. Will hopefully mean we don’t fade as badly in the last 20.

[OptimisticJock]

Due to lightning. Dont look interested since coming back on

[whatisthejava]

down 4 tries to 1

Again our players cant deal with power teams ; our backs also are not exactly difficult to defend against.

[General Zod]

Ah well. At least our skills were presumably excellent. Hopefully, we’ll play a team soon who will let us use them.

[no sleep]

Currently 3-7 down to a lively Fiji team. Tough relegation battle.

[no sleep]

8-7. Playing wide, wide, give it to Blain.

[no sleep]

8-14. Our defence is pretty good, but they're very good if they get through a weak tackle.

[no sleep]

15-17. Having to work hard in the 22 for our try.

[no sleep]

15-24. They are fast. Fast.

[no sleep]

15-38 HT. Show them a bit of space in front of them and they're all over it. We just need to make sure we get them down in the tackle. Going to need to be fit and error-free.

[no sleep]

22-38. Good work by the forwards.

[no sleep]

22-45. I mean, it's all the stuff you love about Fiji, but come on.

[General Zod]

Looks like we’ll be keen to host the tournament next year!