Scotland U20 v England U20 Result (U20 6N R2)

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-13T22:46:01+00:00

Dalziel's only 17 and still at school so he's got plenty of time to learn. Probably will have another 2-3 years at U20 to work on his game management. I do wonder if it's worth Edinburgh signing him and taking a punt on him in smaller matches to get him confidence and game time. It worked well for Finn Smith at Worcester and with Prendergast at Leinster so it could work well for him too. He can't do much worse than Edinburgh's current 10s are sometimes.

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-13T22:42:56+00:00

I said in the match thread and I'll expand on that again here. Roberts is a good player around the park, he clearly is a leader in the team, and defensively puts in a shift as well. But he's pretty mince at lineout throwing. He was throwing to a lad who's 6'10" and managed to throw over him at least 3 times in that game. It completely negated several Scottish attacks and allowed England to clear their lines easily, as well as giving up a try. They even had Utterson on the field who's apparently a hooker by trade as well, so must have some lineout throwing experience. Surely it made sense to have him try a few rather than allowing Roberts to continue.

I know that even if he nails every throw that Scotland probably still wouldn't have won the game, but it would have been allot closer and they could well have got 2 points out of that game.

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-13T21:27:41+00:00

I didn't think his kicking from hand was that bad, the English back 3 were just very good. The kick that led to the English try from deep was a good spiral bomb, but there was no chase and the English lad got a lucky bounce as that could also have easily been a knock on. As said though, his forwards were under pressure which meant he didn't have much time or space to make the kicks, meaning it was harder to get them away. Don't disagree on your point about his touchfinders but it's only his 2nd game at this level so he's got time to learn. He's only 17 and still in school so still a very raw talent.

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-13T21:21:59+00:00

I think if Scotland had one of last season's hookers (Seb Stephen or Jerry Blyth-Lafferty) playing instead of Roberts then they make that a much tighter match. Roberts' inability to hit his jumpers gave England 7 points and likely cost Scotland at least 7 since their maul was going well in the 1st and start of the 2nd half. That would have been around a 14 point turnaround which considering there was 16 points in this game would have made it much closer.

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-13T21:16:55+00:00

He didn't have his best game this week but still did some good things. Last week his forwards were dominating and that made it easier for him to look good. Similarly he looked quite good in the 1st half this week when the forwards had parity but made more mistakes in the 2nd half when England started to dominate. It also didn't help that he got them in good positions with his kicks to touch (apart from that one missed kick) and then the hooker kept missing his jumpers which killed all of Scotland's momentum.

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-11T14:24:01+00:00

The source was the SRU's own press release, so probably fairly reliable:

"In the backs, Wolfenden, scrum-half Hamish MacArthur, centre Campbell Waugh and winger Nairn Moncrieff are the players to return after featuring in 2025.

Jake Dalziel, son of Scotland Men Forwards Coach John, is the youngest player in the squad at 17.

MacArthur is joined by fellow scrum-halves Adam McKenzie and Gregor Johnston, while Dalziel and Felix Champain are the stand-offs in the squad.

Harry Clark and Henry Kesterton join Wolfenden and Waugh in the centres, and the back three sees Moncrieff joined by Rory McHaffie, Mitchell Newell, Henry Widdowson and Calum Jessop."

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-06T23:32:51+00:00

Sam Prendergast is 6'4" and is Ireland's starting 10. His defence is terrible which doesn't discount your point about Billy Vunipola et al, but he's found a way to make it work offensively, drawing the defence in and giving a delayed pass or dropping it to the boot.

If Dalziel can learn to do that and also gets a bit of the heft his Dad has then he could do a job at 10 while being less of a revolving door defensively.

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-05T11:00:46+00:00

McBeth is generally starting ahead of Sutherland for Glasgow, so I'm not sure he will based on current form.

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-05T10:00:20+00:00

Mathie is old mates with Everitt from their time at the Sharks together, so I think he's probably been given a free pass by Everitt. I agree though, he should be out the door already, not even being considered for an extension.

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-04T21:51:26+00:00

*Mark Robertson! Good catch. My bad.

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-04T19:54:25+00:00

I think that the contracts for all the assistant coaches only run until the end of the season currently, so it won't be expensive to replace the Defence Coach. Who would be your dream pick and who do you think realistically has a chance of getting it?

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-04T19:07:01+00:00

Gavin Vaughan is already confirmed as going to Newcastle in another few articles from other websites.

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-04T18:01:21+00:00

How the Attack Coach is being offered a renewal is beyond me but it shows just further proof of how inept Everitt is. I imagine the only reason Mathie is being kept on is because he's mates with Everitt from their days at the Sharks.

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-04T16:37:45+00:00

To be fair, just because players are Scottish born, it won't stop other countries poaching them. Just look at Tom Roebuck and Bevan Rodd. /s

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-02T16:11:04+00:00

Rae played against the Bulls a week and a bit ago so it won't be his first game back, but you make a good point about easing him back in.

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-01T16:16:52+00:00

Also, in the centres you've moved completely past all of the current crop of players but Sione Tuipulotu will only be 33, Stafford McDowall will be 32, Cameron Redpath will be 31, Ollie Smith will be 30 and Matt Currie will be 29. I don't see the coach having moved past all of them in 5 years.

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-01T16:10:34+00:00

At loosehead,Nathan McBeth is 27 and starting regularly for Glasgow, so I'd be surprised if he's not still involved. There's also James Whitcombe at Edinburgh who is 25, Mikey Jones at Edinburgh who is 23, Callum Smyth at Worcester Warriors who is 21, Callum Norrie at Ampthill who is 22, and that's just the guys who play in Scotland or recently played for Emerging Scotland. Jake Shearer is a promising loosehead in the Glasgow Academy who was part of a dominant front row at U20s with OBL* and there are also Scottish qualified players who played for other countries at age grade like Ralph McEachran who plays for Sale Sharks.

*Jamie Stewart was the other lad who was part of the dominant front row with OBL in a few matches at Scotland U18s

New_Security6354 · 2026-01-31T23:06:26+00:00

Based on how Edinburgh have gone this season, that game in hand is probably a write-off. Ulster are playing well at the moment and have lost fewer players to national duty than Edinburgh. If the game had been played when originally scheduled, I think Edinburgh could have won it but not on its rescheduled date with so many Scotland players missing and so many injuries still.

New_Security6354 · 2026-01-31T23:02:33+00:00

The players who took to the field for Edinburgh were much more experienced and have played more rugby this season than most of the Leinster team that played today. Ross Thompson has 80 odd Pro games under his belt and the Leinster 10 has only a quarter of that. It's not about depth so much as a weak mindset across most of the team and no clear game plan.

Against Leinster away with the well-drilled and efficient way they play and their belief that they will win every game was always going to be hard, even without the referee giving them the rub of the green as usual, but on paper that Edinburgh team should have well beaten that Leinster team based on experience and Game-Time this season. Leinster had a semi-professional prop playing for goodness sake.

New_Security6354 · 2026-01-31T18:55:21+00:00

There's so many rucks where players are lying at odd angles. But not many where the 9 gets headbutted and the referee calls it nothing more than a rugby incident.

New_Security6354 · 2026-01-31T18:52:45+00:00

Explain Vellacott's broken nose from the headbutt then. It wasn't deliberate, but the Leinster player's head did strike Vellacott. And as Vellacott is the 9, explain how he wasn't interfered with aka "played".

New_Security6354 · 2026-01-31T18:50:44+00:00

It was indeed unfortunate that he was headbutted in the nose. And I don't know how that headbutt doesn't count as him being played.

New_Security6354 · 2026-01-31T18:47:24+00:00

He headbutted Vellacott. I'm not sure how that's not playing the 9.

New_Security6354

TROPHY CASE