Scotland Under-18s will return home from France empty handed after losing third and final game against Spain. Image: Six Nations Rugby 
SCOTLAND suffered their third consecutive defeat in the final round of the Men’s U18 Six Nations Festival at Le Stade Darragon in Vichy after finishing second best to a strong and efficient Spain side that used their superiority in the forward battle to claim three close range scores in the first half for what proved to be an unassailable lead.
This it is a whitewash for the Scots and a result that will inevitably spark a re-examination of the pathway system and the current set-up’s fitness for purpose. Meanwhile, for Spain, who showed their worth at senior level in the last World Cup, it was their first ever win in this U18 competition and one which confirms that rugby in Spain (and indeed in Portugal) is on an upward trajectory
Disappointingly, Scotland never put consistent pressure on Spain and when they did much of their attacking game was made ineffectual by a series of errors. The Scots were also handicapped by losing two forwards to two yellow-cards in the first half and in the event that gave Spain a simpler route to the line via their powerful mauling game.
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Moreover, Scotland suffered two crucial injuries to their second-row, losing both Christian Lindsay and Will Lockhart, and by the end of the game were playing with a makeshift back five in the scrum.
In defeat there were still a number of impressive individual performances from Scotland, notably the skilful running by Rory McHaffie for his team’s only first half try, the sharpness of Gregor Johnston at scrum-half and the all round-game of Daniel Casserly, who can perform equally well at hooker and in the back-row in a similar vein Jack Utterson, who has honed his skills in the senior game with Kelso.
Scotland’s head coach, Ross Miller, was quick to praise Spain’s performance saying: “They had a good balance through their team of physically strong players, athletes and kickers. For us, there was some satisfaction in creating opportunities to score tries. That we didn’t finish was frustrating for the players. Overall, we haven’t quite performed to our potential. This experience has challenged the Scotland squad.”
Looking ahead, Miller suggested that as in every age-grade squad there will be some who will go on to higher levels. “The best players will come through. They’ll definitely improve. There are certainly some exciting players in this group,” he said.
Scotland opened dynamically and should have scored from a close-range attack then minutes later from a driving maul in the five metre zone that was thwarted by Spain’s expertise in achieving a turnover.
It was an expensive loss of possible points for Scotland who were promptly shown by their opponents how to make better use of possession, the Spanish side moving the ball quickly to create a close-range try for prop Ignacio Navarette converted by stand-off, Mateo Martinez.
Then, when Scotland were penalised for not releasing, Martinez made it two from two with another fine kick at goal to put Spain 10-0 ahead. Scotland, however, were able to reply in spectacular manner, with a solo try from the Peebles full-back McHaffie, the Borderer gliding through several attempted tackles before out sprinting the Spain cover defence for a wonderful solo effort.
Henry Widdowson missed the conversion goal and fortunately for Scotland his opposite number Martinez was also off target from two penalty goal attempts to give Scotland hope that they could stay in the game.
But when Spain’s maul was brought down illegally, prop Max Morrison was shown the yellow-card, leaving the dark blues’ seven man scrum under pressure. And it showed when Spain yet again went into maul mode to engineer a second try for the Iberians scored by Jospeh Alapont.
A difficult first half for Scotland was made worse with a second yellow-card, this time collected by back-row Ashton Young. The effect on Scotland became immediate as Spain again exploited Scotland’s numerical deficiency with yet another driving maul that ended with a second try for Alapont, converted by Martinez for a 22-5 half time lead.
Scotland, having made a number of changes at half-time, reduced Spain’s lead with a second eye-pleasing try, scored by replacement Will Corbett from a move ignited by a quickly taken tap-penalty by replacement Gregor Johnston and then accurate transference of the ball to give Corbett enough room to power his way to the line.
Replacement stand-off Ben MacDougall added the conversion points to reduce the Spain lead to 10 points. The score was enough to trigger Spain into second half action with pressure on the Scotland line by their powerful forwards. When the ball was released, replacement Marc Artiles, with a penalty advantage in his pocket, kicked over the Scotland defence allowing fellow sub Ignacio Moreno to run on to the ball and score his side’s fourth try, converted by replacements Pedro Perez for the final points of the game.
Teams –
Scotland: R McHaffie; L Mathieson, B McDonald, J Taylor, G Gammell; H Widdowson, C Trayler; M Morrison, D Casserly, O Anderson, D Shellard, W Lockhart, A Young, J Nesbitt, H Jackaman. Subs: J Utterson, L Hendrie, J Renniek C Lindsay, H Preston, G Johnston, L Moncrieff, B MacDougall, H Clark, W Corbett, D Barrie.
Spain: T Fisher; I Moreno, P Sanchez, A Valea, M Duruh; M Martinez, G Bardina; I Navarette, J Alapont, C Ejike, U Carballo, M Miska, M Sanz, U Salvador, M Lopez. Subs: F Ce Judo, J Gerrrikabettia, D Garcia, L Official, M Odriozola, P Viches, B Fernandez, M Artiles, L Gil, P Perez, G Vinuesa.
Referee: Damian Dauvissant (France)
Scorers –
Scotland: Tries McHaffie, Corbett; Con: MacDougall.
Spain: Tries: Navarette, Alapont 2, Moreno; Cons: Matinez 2, Perez, Perez; Pen: Martinez.
Scoring Sequence (Scotland first): 0-5; 0-7; 0-10; 5-10; 5-15; 5-20; 5-22 (h-t) 10-22; 12-22; 12-27; 12-29.
Yellow cards –
Scotland: Morrison (21 mins), Young (34 mins)
Talking point: The hope was that after an improved performance against Ireland following the big defeat to England in the first round, Scotland would finish on a high. But it was not to be. Against a strong Spain side, the young Scots did not have the answers to counter their opponents’ strength up front and for the backs there was not enough front-foot ball to play Scotland’s preferred wider game, admittedly not helped by the French referee’s reluctance to let the game flow.
Scotland have done relatively well in this competition in recent seasons, so this would not seem to be a matter of coaching but rather the overall strength of the squad, undoubtedly affected by pre-tournament injuries. Then there is the issue of the number of young players exposed to high level competitive rugby and quality coaching. Right now that number looks to be too small and it seems that systems will have to be devised to widen the net.
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