Five Borderers named in Scotland match-day squad to face USA in World Rugby U20 Trophy

Southern Knights winger Finn Douglas watching Ben Afshar scoring a try for Scotland against Zimbabwe in their World Rugby U20 Trophy pool game on Saturday (Pic: Tony Munge/World Rugby)

Hawick’s Corey Tait and Melrose’s Finn Douglas have been named in head coach Kenny Murray’s starting line-up for the Scots’ second pool match of the competition, kicking off at noon.

Lauder’s Sam Derrick, Selkirk’s Matt Reid and Hawick’s Hector Patterson will be on the bench.

Southern Knights team-mates Douglas and Derrick both started last time out, the former on the wing and the latter at No 8, as the Scots racked up a 64-33 victory against Zimbabwe on Saturday, and Boroughmuir Bears hooker Tait and former Souters full-back Reid, now at Edinburgh’s Watsonians, were among the replacements.

Former Southern Knights scrum-half Ben Afshar continues as co-captain along with Boroughmuir flanker Liam McConnell.

Afshar, 20, at the double and Tait, 19, were both among Scotland’s try-scorers against Zimbabwe, with the former adding five conversions.

Dan King, Logan Jarvie, Ben Salmon, Findlay Thomson, Andrew McLean, Robbie Deans, Callum Norrie, Eddie Erskine, Jake Parkinson, Jonny Smith and Jonny Morris make up the rest of this week’s starting XV, with Finn Duraj, Craig Davidson, Oliver Minnis, Ruaraidh Hart and Kerr Yule also on the bench.

Selkirk No 8 Monroe Job has been added to the Scottish squad to replace former Southern Knights flanker Rudi Brown, now at French club Vannes, after he was forced to drop out due to injury.

Murray, 49, said: “We were really pleased to bag our first win of the tournament and get off to a good start.

“The players showed some strong performances against Zimbabwe, especially in the first half.

“We obviously had a period where we took our foot off the gas in the second half, so there were a lot of learnings to take from that 15-minute window.

“The USA are a strong and physical team, and with this quick turnaround between matches, we must make sure we capitalise on every opportunity.”

Scotland play America at Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi.

They go into that game, being streamed live on Kenya Rugby’s YouTube channel, at the top of their four-team pool with five points, their opponents being second from bottom with one after losing 33-31 to Uruguay on Saturday.

Scotland’s last pool fixture is against the Uruguayans next Tuesday, July 25, at 2pm.