Borderer Hector Patterson on scoresheet as Scots go down 33-15 to Irish in rugby’s 2025 Under-20 Six Nations
A try by Denholm’s Hector Patterson and others from Fergus Watson and Joe Roberts weren’t enough to avert a ninth defeat on the bounce for Scotland in rugby’s 2025 Under-20 Six Nations at home at Edinburgh’s Hive Stadium on Saturday.
Scrum-half Patterson scored his try for head coach Kenny Murray’s age-grade side on 62 minutes after having an earlier effort chalked off for a knock-on, with Watson and Roberts touching down on 24 minutes and 43 respectively as their side lost out by 33-15.
Ireland’s five tries were scored by Charlie Molony on one minute, 12 and 21, Billy Corrigan on 16 and Oisin Minogue on 58, with Daniel Green converting all but one of them.
Patterson was one of three Borderers in Murray’s match-day squad, along with Galashiels’ Nairn Moncrieff and Peebles’ Ross Wolfenden.
All three were originally named as substitutes but Moncrieff was later given a starting place on the right wing in place of Guy Rogers and played for the first 73 minutes before making way for Campbell Waugh. Patterson was brought on at half-time and Wolfenden on 70 minutes, taking over from Noah Cowan at scrum-half and Matthew Urwin at fly-half respectively.
Saturday’s second-round defeat leaves the Scots at the bottom of the tournament table without any points ahead of an away game against the team at the opposite end of the standings, England, now on eight points following a 27-10 victory hosting France last Friday.
That round-three fixture will be played at Newcastle’s Kingston Park on Friday, February 21, with kick-off at 7.15pm, and it will be followed by a return home to Edinburgh to host Wales on Friday, March 7, and a trip to France on Friday, March 14, both 7.15pm kick-offs too.
Looking back over Saturday’s loss to the Irish, Murray, 51, told the Offside Line: “You can’t give teams a start like that. It was a really poor start.
“Individual errors were costly. We came laterally off the line rather than square and they picked us off – that frustrated me – then we just made errors and we turned the ball over a few times.
“It could have been a really sore game. At one point, it was looking pretty bad, but I thought the boys showed a lot of heart to get back into the game.”
Also in Murray’s starting XV were Jack Brown, Johnny Ventisei, Kerr Yule, Watson, Urwin, Noah Cowan, Oliver McKenna, Roberts, Ollie Blyth-Lafferty, Charlie Moss, Dan Halkon, Christian Lindsay, Billy Allen and Reuben Logan.
Joining Patterson and Wolfenden on the substitutes’ bench were Waugh, Jake Shearer, Bart Godsell, Oliver Duncan and Jamie Stewart.
Patterson, Moncrieff and Wolfenden, the only Borderers in Murray’s squad, also played in the Scots’ opening 22-10 defeat hosting Italy on Friday, January 31, all from the bench. Patterson was first on, 49 minutes in, followed by Moncrieff on 64 and Wolfenden on 76.
See also …