Borderer Rory McHaffie on scoresheet again but Scots unable to build on winning start to rugby’s Under-20 Six Nations
A second try in as many games for former Peebles winger Rory McHaffie wasn’t enough to keep up Scotland’s winning start to rugby’s 2026 Under-20 Six Nations at home to England at Edinburgh’s Hive Stadium for round two on Friday.
McHaffie, keeping hold of his No 11 shirt from the young Scots’ 36-10 victory away to Italy seven days prior, touched down for head coach Fergus Pringle’s hosts on 32 minutes, with scrum-half Hamish MacArthur converting, and that was sandwiched by unconverted tries from the No 9 on 27 and loosehead prop Jamie Stewart on 41 in front of a crowd of 6,255.
Their efforts were outdone by five tries and four conversions for England, giving them a 33-17 win, however, though it was a far closer-run thing than last year’s 57-13 thumping at Newcastle’s Kingston Park.
Touching down for the English were Finn Keylock on seven minutes, Jimmy Staples on 21, Connor Treacey on 36, James Pater on 44 and Will Knight on 72, with fly-half Keylock kicking four conversions.
McHaffie was one of five Borderers in ex-Hawick lock Pringle’s starting line-up, along with fellow ex-Peebles player Ross Wolfenden at inside-centre and skippering, Melrose’s Jake Dalziel at fly-half, Kelso’s Jack Utterson at openside flanker and Gala’s Nairn Moncrieff on the right wing.
McHaffie, Dalziel and Moncrieff all put in full shifts but Wolfenden went off on 50 minutes for Calum Jessop and Utterson on 56, making way for Harvey Preston.
Friday’s game was Wolfenden’s first of the tournament, having been ruled out of their opener by injury, but his four fellow representatives of the region were carrying on from the week before, with McHaffie, Dalziel and Moncrieff having all played for the full 80 minutes that time round, all scoring tries, and Utterson having been replaced by Preston on 63 minutes.
It leaves Scotland third in the table, on five points from two fixtures, ahead of a trip to basement side Wales this Friday, with kick-off in Cardiff at 7.15pm.
South African Pringle, 47, was disappointed his side weren’t able to keep up their winning start to the age-grade tournament but is hopeful of getting back on track in Cardiff, telling BBC Scotland: “Fair play to England, they came and put us under a lot of pressure in some key areas of the game and we made a few mistakes. Our accuracy wasn’t where it needed to be.
“I’m disappointed with the result. We couldn’t get out of our half cleanly. Every time we had an exit, we didn’t quite get out of our half as neatly as we needed to.
“We also lost the aerial battle. England are really good in the air and they dominated that area, which is a really important area of the game at the moment.
“Going forward, we just need to be a bit more clinical in getting out of our own half.
“We knew England were going to put real pressure on our exits and we just didn’t quite handle that pressure.
“The boys are really disappointed. They wanted to put in a good performance but we weren’t at our best.
“Going down to Cardiff next week, we just need to regroup and really focus on our own game and really try and put in our best performance on the pitch.”