LOGAN TROTTER, who is still young enough to be playing under-18s rugby, will make his debut for the Scotland Under-20 side against Italy in their final Six Nations match at Broadwood Stadium in Cumbernauld tomorrow (Friday) night.
The Stirling County winger (who travelled with the team to play England last weekend as 24th man) has been called into the side as part of a backline reshuffle instigated by the loss of Cameron Hutchison to a knee injury. Trotter takes over the number 11 jersey from Darcy Graham, who shifts to full-back, while Stafford McDowall moves up to centre.
Apart from that, head coach Sean Lineen has named an unchanged starting fifteen as the young Scots go in search of their first win of the campaign; and the coach believes that his charges should take a great deal of confidence into the clash after laying to rest some of the demons of their Welsh horror-show at Broadwood three weeks ago by giving an experience and powerful English outfit a real run for its money last weekend.
“The players showed a vast improvement with their performance in that match. Their desire and passion to play for the jersey was evident. We’ve named a fairly settled side and a team we believe are capable of securing a home victory,” he said.
Meanwhile, McDowall says he is looking forward to being part of a backline which he expects to give Italy the runaround.
“We’re really about it. Looking at them and how they play – I think it is a team that we can really go out and attack,” said the 19-year-old Ayr player.
“Italy are a big, physical pack and we know they are going to pick-and-go round the edges a lot – they don’t really string a lot of passes together to go wide. The pitch they’ve been playing on Italy hasn’t been the best, so hopefully on a nice pitch like Broadwood we can cause them a few problems by playing some running rugby – if the weather permits.
Robert Kay of heriot’s comes onto the bench.
Scotland U20 team to play Italy U20 in the U20 Six Nations Championship at Broadwood Stadium this Friday (17 March, kick-off 8.30pm) –
15. Darcy Graham (Hawick)
14. Robbie Nairn (Harlequins)
13. Stafford McDowall (Ayr)
12. Ali Greig (Bristol University)
11. Logan Trotter (Stirling County)
10. Josh Henderson (Glasgow Hawks)
9. Andrew Simmers (Heriot’s)
1. George Thornton (Bishop Burton College)
2. Fraser Renwick (Hawick)
3. Adam Nicol (Stirling County)
4. Alex Craig (Gloucester Academy)
5. Callum Hunter-Hill CAPTAIN (Stirling County)
6. Bruce Flockhart (Glasgow Hawks)
7. Matt Fagerson (Glasgow Hawks)
8. Tom Dodd (Worcester Warriors)
Replacements –
16. Robbie Smith (Ayr)
17. Daniel Winning (Boroughmuir)
18. Fergus Bradbury (Stirling County)
19. Hamish Bain (Currie)
20. Luke Crosbie (Currie)
21. Charlie Shiel (Currie)
22. Craig Pringle (Stirling County)
23. Robert Kay (Heriot’s)
Image courtesy: Stirling County RFC