KENNY MURRAY has made just one change to the Scotland Under-20s team he sent out to face Wales two weekends ago, ahead of tomorrow night’s age-grade Six Nations round three clash against France at the DAM Health Stadium.
Ollie Leatherbarrow, who missed that game so that he could be part of the match-day squad for Exeter Chiefs against Gloucester in the English Premiership (he was an unused substitute), returns at No 8, and will look to recapture the form he showed when scoring two tries against England in round one of this campaign.
Matt Deehan shifts across the back-row from No 8 to blindside flanker to fill the gap created by Olujare Oguntibeju’s long-term knee injury.
“He’s going to be out for at least the rest of the season and probably longer – it could be up to the end of this calendar year,” explained head coach Murray.
“It’s a real shame for him. He obviously did well when he was on during the game down in Wales and was really developing well. He’s still learning the game but showed a lot of potential in the time he had.
“He’ll get the appropriate medical support and we’ll hopefully get him back on the pitch as soon as we can.”
There are no other changes to the Scotland side as they hunt their first win in their third outing of the campaign.
“When you look back at that game [versus Wales], on 67 minutes we were winning then we lost three tries in the last 12 minutes, so we looked at that in our review,” said Murray. “We just need to manage the game better.
“Our exits were poor during that period, and we didn’t keep hold of the ball well enough, so it is just small things we need to get better at.
“But for 60 odd minutes the boys put a shift in, so we want to reward that, and try to get out there with what we think is our strongest team to play France this week.”
Scotland U20s (v Wales at The DAM Health Stadium on Friday @ 8pm: Robin Mc Clintock (Montpellier); Ross McKnight (Stirling County/Glasgow Warriors), Duncan Munn (Boroughmuir Bears), Andy Stirrat (GHA), Ollie Melville (Newcastle University); Christian Townsend (Ayrshire Bulls/Glasgow Warriors), Murray Redpath (Newcastle University); Michael Jones (Heriot’sRugby/Edinburgh Rugby), Patrick Harrison (Edinburgh Rugby), Gregor Scougall (Currie Chieftains), Josh Taylor (Ealing Trailfinders), Max Williamson (Stirling County/Glasgow Warriors), Matthew Deehan (Newcastle Falcons), Rhys Tait (Boroughmuir Bears/Glasgow Warriors) CAPTAIN, Ollie Leatherbarrow (Exeter Chiefs). Replacements: Gregor Hiddleston (GHA), Ali Rogers (Glasgow Hawks), Callum Norrie (Strathallan School), Rudi Brown (Watsonians Rugby/Edinburgh Rugby), Tim Brown (Glasgow Hawks), Jonty Cope (Durham University), Euan Cunningham (Stirling County/Glasgow Warriors), Thomas Glendinning (Glasgow Hawks).