Scotland highest ever placing in the Rugby World Under-20 Championship, following the young Scots’ victory against Wales on Tuesday, has provided confirmation that the BT Academy system is having a positive effect.
That is the view, certainly, of Sean Lineen, the former Scotland grand slam centre, and now Murrayfield’s head of national age-grade rugby. “The Academy structures are now showing through.” Lineen said. “But we’ve got to keep driving forward in the 16-20 age group. We’ve got two teams at under-16 so that gives us a wider base.”
But Lineen is adamant that success this year has also come from within the squad. “For a start the coaches have done a great job. Look, it’s three wins from four games. The team has grown fitter. We have a good forward pack, our kicking game is better and we have excellent runners in Darcy Graham and Ross McCann.
“I think, too, that the boys have adjusted well to this level of competition. Crucially the big names have fronted up and just as important our two main props have got a lot fitter.
“But it’s tough in Scottish age grade rugby. Wales have far more players than us. As far as I’m concerned the lads have exceeded what we expected of them.” stated Lineen.
Scotland have been steadily improving at under-20 level over the past three years. In both 2015 and 2016 the Scots finished in a then highest ever eighth position to suggest an improving picture of age grade rugby. A fifth or sixth finish this year will confirm that upward trajectory.
That is probably about the best Scotland can hope for. To mix it with the top four Scotland would have to have an exceptional squad containing a high percentage of already contracted professional players. This year’s squad has been fortunate in being able to call on Edinburgh’s Blair Kinghorn and with skipper Callum Hunter-Hill and back row Matt Fagerson having played for Glasgow Warriors there is the professional experience needed at this level.
Of course in age grade rugby teams change every year. Last year in Manchester Ireland had a strong squad that defeated New Zealand en route to finishing Championship runners-up. One year on Ireland find themselves in the bottom tier playing on Sunday for a ninth/tenth finishing spot, a position the Scots used to occupy with depressing regularity.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here