Borderers Nairn Moncrieff and Jake Dalziel supply 14 points as Scotland beat Argentina at 2026’s World Rugby Junior Championship in Georgia

Left-winger Moncrieff, 19, and fly-half Dalziel, 17, were among three Borderers in head coach Fergus Pringle’s starting XV for that 44-26 fifth-place semi-final in Tbilisi, the other being Peebles’ Rory McHaffie at full-back, and they were accompanied by Kelso’s Jack Utterson on the bench.

Moncrieff played for 67 minutes before making way for Ewan Caven, touching down just past the half-hour mark, and Dalziel and McHaffie, 19, were on for the full game.

Utterson, also 19, was brought on as a 50th-minute replacement for Oliver Finlayson-Russell at No 8.

Scotland’s other try-scorers were tighthead prop Ollie Blyth-Lafferty on eight minutes, hooker Joe Roberts on 23 and 63, scrum-half Hamish MacArthur on 46, replacement Jamie Stewart on 66 and openside flanker Harvey Preston on 70.

Dalziel kicked conversions on nine minutes, 24 and 67, adding a penalty on 81.

Argentina’s tries, two of them converted by Federico Serpa Laporte, were scored by Bautista Lescano, Pedro Coll and Ramon Fernandez and they were also awarded a penalty try.

Scotland now go on to contest a fifth-place play-off versus Wales in Tbilisi this Friday, with kick-off at 5.30pm, and if they win that match, they’ll match their country’s best finish ever at the championship, achieved by a squad with current national team forwards coach John Dalziel, father of Jake, in charge and featuring Hawick’s Darcy Graham and Fraser Renwick and Melrose’s Patrick Anderson and Ross McCann back in 2017, also in Georgia.

Former Hawick lock Pringle, 48, was delighted by the account his team gave of themselves against the Argentinians, saying: “We put in a big shift.

“I think our conditioning showed in that last 20 minutes of the game. I thought we finished the game strong and I thought we started it well.

“That gave us a bit of belief, and starting well I knew was going to be important.

“We managed to keep it going. We had a few spells there where we knew we weren’t in control, but the boys dug in and then fought back every time we had to.

“There were two or three momentum shifts in the game, I guess.

“I’m just really chuffed for them that they put in such a good performance in such a big game.

“The guys were really composed throughout the whole game and physically we’re in a good place despite having played four games so far in a short space of time.

“The players will now try and recover as best they can and then we will try and finish with our best performance of the competition on Friday hopefully.”

Sunday’s match was the young Scots’ fourth of the tournament following wins by 43-22 against Japan the Tuesday before and 38-32 versus Italy on Saturday, June 27, along with a 36-26 loss to New Zealand on Thursday, July 2, in their pool, all in Kutaisi.

Dalziel junior is currently in Newcastle Red Bulls’ academy and Moncrieff, McHaffie and Utterson are all teammates at United Rugby Championship outfit Edinburgh.