Scotland’s Matthew Urwin and Kerr Yule attempt to open up Georgia’s defence. Image: World Rugby 
SCOTLAND’S hopes of ending a run of defeats to Georgia were shattered yet again in the final round of the 2025 World Rugby U20 Championship at the Stadio San Michele in Calvisano after the Scots, at critical times in the game, were unable to match the sheer physicality of their opponents, who were able to play to their strengths when it mattered
Yet there were times when the Scots put pressure on their opponents, notably in the scrum and moreover when they moved the ball wide, and it would be a hard-hearted observer who would not concede that Scotland got very few breaks from both the referee, who issued yellow cards to Freddy Douglas and Kerr Yule in the space of one minute costing the Scots 12 points, and the TMO, who intervened twice during the third quarter to disallow scores after the men in blue had fought back tenaciously to regain lost ground. In fairness, however, the TMO also scrubbed out a Georgian ‘score’ after only 76 seconds of play in the first half.
Undoubtedly this was a disappointing ending to what has been a very tough Championship campaign but the reality was that there was not much the Scots could do to counter the Georgians’ ferocious size and power in key positions, that was used so efficiently in the driving maul.
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For Scotland, Reuben Logan appeared to be the answer to the Georgian giants, the Scotland No 8 capping an impressively abrasive performance with his side’s only try from a clever line-out move and acceleration that his father, Kenny, would have appreciated. Collectively, Scotland’s forwards did well to stay in the game against the physicality of the Georgians, while behind the scrum the midfield trio of Matthew Urwin, record cap holder Kerr Yule and skipper Johnny Ventisei worked well together. And again, Hector Patterson pointed to a promising future in rugby with a lively performance that was so nearly rewarded with a try.
Scotland looked to be in trouble after only 76 second of play when the Georgians drove a line-out forcing their way over, only for the TMO to have spotted obstruction by two of their back-row forwards resulting in the ‘try; being chalked off.
Kenny Murray’s men, however, quickly recovered from this initial shock by playing some sweet ball-in-hand rugby that took them to within five meters of the Georgian line. A penalty against them, however, thwarted the Scots’ ambitions and allowed Georgia to gain territory. Then, after a severe pounding on their line, Scotland were hit by a second driving maul from which their prolific scorer Shota Kheladze exploded, launching an unstoppable dash to the line for an unconverted try.
Scotland were again under pressure from yet another sequence of scrum, penalty, line-out and maul, but this time they were saved by co-skipper Douglas’ jackalling skills.
But no sooner had Douglas demonstrated why he is such a valuable back-row than the openside was shown a yellow-card for a technical offence in the contact area. Bad though this was for Scotland, matters became immeasurably worse when Yule was sent to the bin for a similar ‘offence’ reducing the Scots to a complement of 13.
Inevitably, Georgia with a two man advantage, used the ensuing penalty award to kick to the corner and then hurl their human wrecking ball Mikheili Shioshvili at the Scotland line with an all too predictable outcome for the massive Georgian, full-back Giorgi Bolkvadze adding the extra points.
Against the odds ,Scotland came close to scoring when Jed Findlay gathered the ball from an Urwin kick before off-loading to Fergus Watson, only for the latter’s pass to Patterson to go astray.
Georgia feeling the need to use their two man advantage did just that, attacking on the left touchline before shifting the ball to the other side of the pitch and then once again infield for prop Mate Gurtskaia to crash over for his side’s third try.
But if it had looked bleak for Scotland then a try by Logan off a line-out move and the conversion by Urwin visibly lifted the Scots’ confidence, confirmed in the final few minutes of the first half and again inspired by another incisive run by Logan. But no try and it left the Scots going into the sheds trailing 7-17 at the break.
If Georgia had felt cheated about having a score disallowed in the opening minutes of the first half then Scotland experienced the same emotions at the equivalent stage in the second period. Douglas appeared to have scored from a driving maul, only for the TMO to again identify obstruction.
A second heartbreak for Scotland followed with the denial of a try that appeared to have been scored by Patterson, only for the interfering TMO to rule (correctly) that the Scotland scrum-half was marginally offside in the build up to his ‘score’ .
Scotland then suffered a further reverse when Jack Brown failed to take a high ball from a speculative Georgian kick to the corner compounded by replacement Jack Hocking being unable to control the bouncing ellipsoid. The mighty Shioshvili was on the spot to take advantage, scoring his second try of the match, effectively killing Scots’ hopes of salvaging the game.
Yet, in spite of this crushing blow, Scotland still had the inner belief to attack the Georgian line and came within a fraction of scoring from a strong run by replacement Joe Roberts.
Then, when Brown was given a scoring chance at the end of a good handling movement the wing was chopped down a metre from the line and from thereon the scoreline remained unchanged to leave Scotland reflecting on a match of mixed fortunes but one in which they might consider they got little help from the match officials in going down to a fourth successive defeat to Georgia
Teams –
Georgia: G Bolkvadze; L Keshelava, D Akhviediani, N Kevkhishvili, S Meskhidze; T Dzodzuashvili (G Sirbiladze 55), G Spanderashvili (D Tsiklauri 62); G Turashvili (G Meskhidze 55), S Kheladze (D Archvadze 68), M Gurtskaia (G Dzagania 55), D Baramia (N Chkhortolia 68), G Margvelashvili, N Abesadze, L Narsia, M Shioshvili (G Ardzenadze 57)
Scotland: J Findlay (J Hocking 54); J Brown, J Ventisei, K Yule, F Watson; M Urwin (I Coates 55), H Patterson (N Cowan59); O McKenna (W Pearce 54), S Stephen (J Roberts 44), O Blyth-Lafferty (J Shearer 56), D Cockburn (C Moss 59), B Godsell, O Duncan (M Fyffe 70), F Douglas, R Logan
Referee: Griffin Colby (RSA)
Scorers –
Georgia: TriesL Kheladze, Shioshvili 2, Gurtskaia; Con: Bolkvadze .
Scotland: Try: Logan; Con: Urwin.
Scoring sequence (Georgia first): 5-0; 10-0; 12-0; 17-0 17-5; 17-7 (h-t) 22-7.
Yellow cards –
Scotland: Douglas (20 minx), Yule (21 mins)
Talking point: The World Rugby U20 Championship becomes harder year by year and it to their credit that Scotland with limited resources compared to most of their opponents were able to finish 10th overall, the position which was the modal average for the Scots before their relegation in 2019. While Scotland have worked hard to improve their skill levels, the fact remains that there is little that can be done to counter the kind of monster players that the likes of South Africa and Georgia have in their forward packs. The search to find such ‘big’ athletes needs to be stepped up and beyond the sources on which Scotland has depended for too long.