Scotland Under-20s head coach Kenny Murray says better decision-making and game-management will be key to his team finishing a disappointing Junior World Trophy campaign in Kenya on a positive note.
The young Scots face Samoa in a 3rd/4th place play-off at Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi this morning (kick-off 10am), looking to bounce back from Tuesday’s defeat to Uruguay, which cost them the chance to secure promotion back into the top-tier Junior World Championship next year.
“We’ve spoken a bit about being a bit more physical around the tackle area, having a bit more presence on ball, but to be honest with you, having reviewed the Uruguay game the biggest things for us was our game management,” said Murray.
“Sometimes we beat ourselves by playing too much in our own half, either due to good pressure by Uruguay or poor tactical decisions by us.
“Our game management let us down, at times we weren’t clinical enough and then we gave them some soft tries, and effectively that was the game for us.
“Samoa have got an excellent 10 who’s a real bag of tricks,” Murray added. “He has a really good kicking game, he’s a good runner from counter-attack and his handling skills and offloading is excellent. He looks like a real star.
“They thrive off unstructured play – counter-attack, turnover, quick taps – so there is a real theme this week of trying to put out that spark and nullify that side of their game.
“On the other hand, their line-out isn’t great so that’s an area we could go after.”
Murray backed flanker Monroe Job to make an impact in his first appearance at this level.
“Monroe is from Selkirk and played for them in the Premiership last season,” explained the coach. “He’s signed for Southern Knights for the coming season and is one of the MacPhail Scholarship players who went to Stellenbosch in South Africa from the end of January to the start of June. So, he benefitted from that experience and then came in to train with us towards the end of our programme before we came out here.
“The big thing is he’s under-19 so he’s got another year at this level, which is great.”
