Six Borderers named in Scottish side to contest World Rugby U20 Trophy in Kenya

Matt Reid playing for Selkirk against Edinburgh Academical in September (Pic: Bill McBurnie)

Head coach Kenny Murray’s 28-man travelling party includes three Southern Knights – back-rowers Rudi Brown and Sam Derrick and winger Finn Douglas – plus Hawick’s Corey Tait and Hector Patterson, currently playing at hooker for Boroughmuir Bears and scrum-half for Watsonians respectively, and former Selkirk full-back Matt Reid, now at Watsonians too.

Tait and Melrose’s Douglas both got on the scoresheet for the age-grade side as they beat Spain 43-20 on Sunday in their last warm-up match ahead of the African tournament.

Tait got the young Scots’ first try at the at the Ruta de la Plata Stadium in Zamora and Douglas touched down the second from last of the six that followed on 54 minutes.

Hector Patterson on the ball for Hawick during their Tennent's Premiership play-off final win against Currie Chieftains in March (Pic: Mark Scates/SNS Group/SRU)

Also on the scoresheet for head coach Kenny Murray’s side, featuring Derrick among their replacements, were ex-Knight and co-captain Ben Afshar at the double, Jonny Smith, co-skipper Liam McConnell and Jerry Blyth-Lafferty, with conversions added by Richie Simpson twice, Afshar and Andy McLean.

Scotland will be in a pool with Zimbabwe, the USA and Uruguay at the eight-team African competition, starting on Saturday, July 15.

McConnell and Afshar continue as co-captains and making up the rest of the squad will be Blyth-Lafferty, Craig Davidson, Robbie Deans, Finn Duraj, Eddie Erskine, Ruaraidh Hart, Ollie Minnis, Jonny Morris, Callum Norrie, Jake Parkinson, Jonny Smith, Max Surry, Finlay Burgess, Geordie Gwynn, Logan Jarvie, Dan King, Matt Reid, Ben Salmon, Findlay Thomson and Kerr Yule.

Murray said: “After our preparation match against Spain last weekend, we are looking forward to heading to Nairobi in a couple of weeks’ time.

Finn Douglas in action for Edinburgh during a pre-season friendly match against London Scottish at the capital's DAM Health Stadium in September (Photo by Ross Parker/SNS Group/SRU)

“We were happy with many elements of play during that match but it also highlighted what we must work on if we want to be successful in the World Rugby U20 Trophy.

“We’ve been able to name a strong squad ahead of the tournament next month, with some familiar faces people will have seen during the Under-20 Six Nations and some new guys who earned their first caps in Spain last weekend.

“This tournament is a massive test for the squad. Not only does Kenya provide us with some unfamiliar environmental factors, like altitude and heat, but we will also be up against some very strong teams, all hungry for winning the title and promotion to the championship.”