Scotland U20 push New Zealand to take well earned point at Junior World Championship

The Scots played with a good deal of courage and tenacity to score four tries against opponents who have won this competition six times, more than any other nation.

It meant Scotland secured a bonus point, taking them on to six points for the tournament following their win over Italy U20 in their opening match. They face Japan next week in their final pool match.

Joe Roberts, the co-captain and Glasgow Warriors hooker, led the way with two tries and there were also scores for Glasgow Hawks No 8 Harvey Preston and - right at the very end - Dan Kelly, the Edinburgh winger.

Teenage stand-off Jake Dalziel turned in another impressive display and converted three of the four tries in Kutaisi.

‘The effort and the fight was outstanding’

“I was really proud of that performance,” said Pringle. “I was saying to the boys, I could see they were gutted when we were chatting after the game, they were very disappointed. But I just thought the effort and the fight was outstanding.

“It's tough, it's warm and I know it's the same for both teams, but the boys really dug in and gave everything. And obviously we know, against a team like that, we just have to be a bit more clinical. We can't afford the mistakes that we had, but those are going to happen. We're never going to have a go at the boys who are making mistakes when they're having a go.

“I thought the effort was outstanding. I thought it was almost characterised by the last minute of the game. They managed to get a scrum pen and they managed to go to the corner and score.”

Lineout drives yield dividends

Three of Scotland’s four tries came from lineout drives. New Zealand scored five tries, through Logan Williams, Cohen Norrie (two), Siale Pahulu and John Falloon. Mika Muliaina converted four and added a penalty.

“I would say we just needed to get a few more entries into their 22,” said Pringle. “They had quite a good kicking strategy against us. They kicked the ball long and on and we didn't deal with that too well. When we did get into their 22, I felt we could score. We just probably didn't get in there enough.”

The coach added: “It's a frustrating day at the office, because our lineout didn't function when we really wanted it to, but in the same breath, I think that can happen in games and you see it happening even at test level, where a team can just get at you a bit, they can just make you second-guess yourself a bit.”