Borderers help new Scotland U20 rugby head coach Fergus Pringle get off to winning start away to Italy
Former Hawick lock Fergus Pringle got off to a winning start as head coach of Scotland’s under-20 rugby team on Friday, thanks to tries from Borderers Nairn Moncrieff, Jake Dalziel and Rory McHaffie.
Those scores from right-winger Moncrieff, fly-half Dalziel and left-winger McHaffie were among six for the Scottish age-grade team as they kicked off this year’s Under-20 Six Nations away to Italy in Treviso, their others being touched down by captain and hooker Joe Roberts, inside-centre Henry Kesterton and replacement openside flanker Harvey Preston, with scrum-half Hamish MacArthur adding three conversions.
Going the other way, Daniele Coluzzi got a try back for their hosts and Roberto Fasti kicked a penalty and conversion.
Friday’s 36-10 bonus-point win for the young Scots was their first on the road in that competition for six years.
It leaves them level on five points with table-toppers France, 50-21 winners at home to Ireland on Saturday, ahead of a visit from third-placed England to Edinburgh’s Hive Stadium this coming Friday, with kick-off at 7.15pm.
Pringle, 47, is due to name his match-day squad for round two of the contest tomorrow, February 11.
Gala’s Moncrieff, Melrose’s Dalziel and Peebles’ McHaffie were among four representatives of the region in the South African’s starting line-up, along with Kelso’s Jack Utterson at No 7.
Moncrieff, Dalziel and McHaffie played for the full 80 minutes, with Utterson, usually deployed at hooker, making way for Preston on 63.
McHaffie’s old Gytes teammate Ross Wolfenden, named as squad captain ahead of the tournament, missed out due to concussion protocols.
Pringle – appointed as the under-20s head coach in November, replacing Kenny Murray, with Jedburgh’s Greig Laidlaw and fellow ex-Edinburgh scrum-half Sean Kennedy as assistants – was delighted to get off to a winning beginning and is hoping for more of the same this week versus the English, 19-16 winners hosting Wales in Northamptonshire on Friday, saying: “You don’t expect to come away from home, playing Italy, and get a scoreline like that.
“There was good energy about things. We had a clear plan of what we wanted to do against Italy and, to be honest, I thought they executed it really well.
“Hopefully the boys take confidence from this game and put in a performance they can be proud of. That’s the main thing – I want the guys to back themselves, have a real go and put in a performance that, whatever the result, they can be proud of.”
Dalziel, named as man of the match in spite of being the youngest member of Scotland’s squad at 17, added: “We had a good month’s preparation for this game and we’ve just been focused on this and not really thought about anything else, just coming here and putting our best foot forward.
“Coming here was about the team and that performance was what we were after, and to have put in a performance myself was obviously a bonus.”