Scotland suffered a heavy defeat to England on the opening weekend of the U18 Men Six Nations Festival in Vichy. Image courtesy: Six Nations 
LESS then 24 hours after Scotland shipped more than a half century of points to Italy in an under-19 international friendly at The Greenyards, Scotland’s age-grade international programme suffered an even worse result at Le Stade Darragon in Vichy where England, playing with power, precision and not a little panache, overran Scotland in the opening round of the U18 Mens Six Nations Festival.
In hot conditions at the Rhone-Alpes ground, England used their power, their suffocating defence and their skill in attack to run in 10 tries from a display that merely confirmed that the academy system south of the border and the consistently high quality matches that their hot-housed players enjoy is stratospherically above what Scotland’s players experience in their domestic competition.
“This group got a bit of a shock with the physicality and the pace of the game. They don’t get this kind of feedback from the games they play back home. But when we play England or France in this kind of competition it’s always difficult,” opined Scotland’s head coach, Ross Miller.
Edinburgh nails down stand-off options for next season
Champions Cup: Leinster v Glasgow: Zander Fagerson to miss crunch clash
Dave Cherry’s move to France is announced
“Under pressure we were forced into errors and that allowed England to score,” he added. “England were very good and very clinical. There was a big gap out there. Now we have reflect on the game and learn, particularly about the pace of the game. The boys will learn quickly and we will improve. We actually created some opportunities and our line-out went well. We will certainly use that to get better”.
In simple terms, this was about highly conditioned England players able to use their physicality and their background of demanding rugby matches throughout the season to run through a Scotland side that competed decently enough up front but which struggled behind the scrum, unable handle the quick-engaging and hard-hitting England backline defence whilst struggling to put together meaningful attacks.
Inaccuracy, too, cost Scotland, who conceded a brace of tries to interception passes, while at other times hesitancy in tackle engagement allowed the powerful England backs to break free and off-load at will. Individually, England had several star performers, notably Charlie Tamani, the powerfully-built and low-to-the-ground Northampton Saints wing, who caused mayhem in the Scotland ranks whenever he was in possession.
For their part, Scotland looked competent in the line-out where skipper Christian Lindsay, a veteran from last season’s competition, and his target finder, Jack Utterson, linked well. Behind the scrum, half-backs Gregor Johnston and Henry Widdowson combined well while Rory McHaffie at full-back showed incision and appropriately was rewarded with his side’s only try.
The game was essentially over after only 20 minutes of play when England led 33-0 after scoring tries by Tamani, stand-off Oscar Talbot, winger Junior Denny, flanker Jack Lewis, and second-row Henry Laidlow. Then, in the final 15 minutes of the first period, Tamani powered over for his second try after appearing in midfield, the train of touchdowns continuing with a close-range effort from No 8 George Marsh, and with Talbot converting six of the England first half scores, the men in white trooped into the sheds with a healthy 47-0 lead.
To make matters worse for Scotland, prop Jackson Rennie was yellow-carded just before the break, meaning England had an even greater advantage at the beginning of the second half, which they turned into points as Tamani made the running for a try by scrum-half Isaac Mears, converted by Talbot.
Then came a glimmer of hope for Scotland as their forwards pressed hard on the England line only for the Lenzie flanker Harvey Preston to be held up. But from the subsequent goal-line drop-out Scotland gained possession and from a clever inside pass by Lindsay, McHaffie dashed over for a much-needed try.
But then it was back to business as usual for England as replacement wing Zac Finch was given a simple interception try converted by fellow benchman Hugh Shields, before further scores by subs Archie Appleby, who is Scotland qualified, and Jerold Gorleku completed the rout with touchdowns in the final five minutes.
Scotland face Ireland, who kick-off their campaign against Wales at 5.30pm tonight [Thursday], in their next match on Monday afternoon.
Teams –
England: J Pater; J Denny, V Worsnip, W Knight, C Tamani; O Talbot, I Mears; A Poku, K Freeman-Price, H Wright, F Ogden-Metherell, H Laidlow, E Williams, J Lewis, G Marsh. Subs: J Gorleku, O Spencer, S Bland, A Appleby, T Williams, M Branch-Holland, J Townsend, H Shields, D Treacy, H Lumley, Z Finch.
Scotland: R McHaffie (D Barrie 55); L Mathieson, W Corbett, J Taylor (H Clark 45), G Gammell (B McDonald 45); H Widdowson (B MacDougall 50), G Johnston (C Trayler 63); L Hendrie (M Morrison 52), J Utterson, J Rennie (O Anderson 40), D Shellard (W Lockhart 55), C Lindsay ©, H Jackaman (A Young 55), H Preston (J Nesbitt 63), L Moncrieff (D Casserly 51).
Referee: Jon Ibasate Alday (France)
Scorers –
England: Tries: Tamani 2, Talbot, Denny, Lewis, Laidlow, Marsh, Mears, Finch, Appleby, Orleku; Cons: Talbot 7, Shields.
Scotland: Try: McHaffie
Scoring Sequence (England first): 5-0; 10-0; 12-0; 17-0; 19-0; 24-0; 26-0; 31-0; 33-0; 38-0; 40-0; 45-0; 47-0 (h-t) 52-0; 54-0; 54-5; 59-5; 61-5; 66-5; 71-5.
Yellow cards –
Scotland: Rennie (34 mins), Utterson (66 mins)
Man-of-the-Match: England had a number of star players but it was Charlie Tamani who caught the eye most with his ability to step out of attempted tackles and his awareness of when to offload to supporting players. And he’s still under-17!
Talking point: This is not the first time Scotland have experienced a trouncing at the hands of an England under-18 team. But such defeats have seemingly not prevented Scotland’s senior international team from performing well against England. The simple fact is that England, at under-18 level, have an overwhelming advantage in the number of players available and crucially in the high level of rugby that most of their under-18 players enjoy while representing their professional clubs in academy games. Here in Scotland, our emergent players are simply not exposed to enough high level games and so arguably they will not have had sufficient background work to compete at international level.
Ross Miller is adamant that Scotland need better international preparation. He said: “There isn’t a plan around fixtures. We perhaps need to work more around under-17 games. You have to play international teams to learn about different styles”.
That said, Scotland, under the stewardship of Miller, have done reasonably well in the Six Nations Festival in recent years, so the result against England might suggest a not-so-strong Scotland year group, and one not helped by a slew of pre-tournament injuries, or simply that our southern neighbours have a vintage crop in 2025.