Four Borderers named in Scotland’s squad for 2025’s World Rugby U20 Championship in Italy

Head coach Kenny Murray has called up Gala’s Nairn Moncrieff, Hawick’s Hector Patterson and Melrose’s Ben White and Dylan Cockburn.

Winger Moncrieff, scrum-half Patterson and prop White are all now at Edinburgh and second-rower Cockburn has joined their United Rugby Championship rivals Glasgow Warriors’ academy.

They’re part of a 30-strong squad heading over to Italy to contest a pool also including England, South Africa and Australia.

They play the English on Sunday, June 29, in Verona; the Wallabies in Viadana on Friday, July 4; and the Springboks in Calvisano on Wednesday, July 9, all 2.30pm kick-offs, as they bid to make it to the knockout semi-finals of the competition.

Today’s squad announcement follows a 48-29 warm-up win away to Ireland in Belfast last Friday.

Freddy Douglas and Johnny Ventisei will be joint captains, carrying on from co-skippering at this year’s Under-20 Six Nations.

Murray, 51, said: “It’s fantastic to be back in the U20 championship, having won the trophy last year, and it provides a really important chance for our best young talent to play against some of the best players in the world at this level, which will help their development massively.

“We’ve had a long preparation block with a wider squad and we had a really strong group to pick from.

“The group took some confidence from beating Ireland in the friendly last week but there was also plenty for us to work on and we know we’ll have to be better in the championship.

“The group-stage fixtures will obviously be tough, but we’ve trained well and the opportunity is there for the players to put in 80-minute performances that really show what we’re capable of.”

Douglas, White and Cockburn’s fellow forwards are Ollie Blyth-Lafferty, Oliver Duncan, Oliver Finlayson-Russell, Mark Fyffe, Bart Godsell, Dan Halkon, Reuben Logan, Oliver McKenna, Charlie Moss, Will Pearce, Joe Roberts, Jake Shearer, Seb Stephen and Jamie Stewart.

Joining Moncrieff, Paterson and Ventisei among the squad’s backs are Jack Brown, Isaac Coates, Noah Cowan, Jed Findlay, Jack Hocking, Angus Hunter, Matthew Urwin, Cameron van Wyk, Fergus Watson and Kerr Yule.

This year’s championship, the 15th, is Scotland’s first since 2019, a 48-10 victory by a side featuring Patterson, White and Cockburn in 2024’s World Rugby U20 Trophy final at Edinburgh’s Hive Stadium last July having earned them a return to the higher-level competition.