ENGLISH LIONS YOUTH v SCOTLAND U19

Despite a spirited performance, Scotland’s Under 19 team fell to a 44-10 defeat to English Lions Youth at Leigh in the latest of their autumn internationals. Two second half tries from Finn Murphy proved to be the highlights of the afternoon for the young Scots, who battled well throughout but struggled to cope with the pace and strength of their hosts.

Two tries in the opening 12 minutes saw England off to a good start, and another converted try took the score to 14-0 on 28 minutes.

But the Scots hit back, and after spurning a good chance with a dropped pass on the sixth tackle with the line in sight, they were a little unfortunate to go in 20-0 down at half time after conceding another try in the last play of the first half.

The second half began well, with the Scots getting their first points within two minutes of the restart following a well worked try.  A good break by Oliver Murray gained a good position deep in the England half, and a clever switch of play with a cross field kick found Charlie Leask in space on the left, and he leapt to palm the ball back to Finn Murphy who dived over in the corner. Despite Murphy missing the conversion, it was a hopeful start for the Scots, but they failed to build on it, and in the space of the next 20 minutes four more England tries moved the score on to 44-4.

However, the Scots claimed the final points of the afternoon with another try from Murphy, the Edinburgh Eagles man darting through a gap in the England defence to touch down near the posts, leaving him an easy conversion to round off the afternoon.

Scotland Under 19s Team Manager Andrew Bennett looked back on the team’s performance after the game. “I thought we did really well in the first half, and if a few game management decisions from our players had been a bit better I thought we could have gone in at half time a lot closer”, he said. “But that’s rugby league, if you don’t make the right decisions, you go further behind than you should be. At half time we said that the effort and determination was there, we couldn’t knock it, it was just game management and making the wrong decisions”.

SCOTLAND U19


ENGLISH LIONS YOUTH 
Jake Callum, Josh Oakes, Joey Brady, Alex Prince, Connor Turner, Dean Rooney, James Whittaker, James Williams, Brad Gotts, James Steels, Jack Mathers, Gavin Roden, Jacob Moore. Subs: Declan Gregory, Kieron Atherton, Louis Brown, Jack Sharrett, Jordan Blakely, Reece Cunningham, Calvin Parker