Kenny Murray admits he hopes Ruaraidh Hart’s debut for Glasgow Warriors is just the start for his current crop of U20s to kick on and get regular professional minutes.

The Scotland U20 head coach has been vocal in his wishes for more game time for his young stars of the future as he compared them to the likes of France, who have their U20s playing regularly for the likes of Bordeaux. Compare that to Scotland and Hart’s appearance in the latter stages of Glasgow’s 40-7 victory over Dragons on Saturday was the first for any of his squad.

The likes of Max Williamson, Alex Samuel and Ben Afshar have also been recent members of the U20s and all started for Glasgow last weekend and Murray is thrilled to see that happening and believes it be inspiring for his players. He named his team to take on England on Friday with two changes seeing Jerry Blyth-Lafferty come in for Elliot Young, who has been ruled out for the rest of the tournament with a shoulder injury, and Euan McVie returning in place of Theo Currie, who drops out of the 23.

That continuity is something he feels will be key and he’s hoping the players can take something from Hart’s debut, with Glasgow coach Franco Smith making his way along to training to check out the U20 squad earlier this week too.

READ MORE: Scotland U20s team named to face England with two changes from France defeat

Murray said: “It shows how close this level is to pro rugby and they should be taking inspiration – a number of guys in this group could be playing pro soon too.

“If you look at the France team we played last time, last week these boys were all back at La Rochelle and Bordeaux and as I have said before U20 rugby is a high level of rugby, most guys are playing pro rugby, so we need to keep stretching and pushing our guys upwards so they are getting as much game time at that level as they can.

“It is great that guys like Franco are trusting our young players, trusting them that they can go out on that pitch at that level and do it.

“Even for the 20, 21 year olds who are out of the U20 programme, they need to keep pushing on, that Glasgow team last week was littered with young talent and that is excellent to see, but it is important to get the guys playing as high a level as possible.”

Scotland have struggled at U20 level recently but did show up well against France, with Murray bemoaning the fact they showed the world champions too much respect in the first half of that game, but that won’t happen this week.

He added: “We had a joint training with the Scotland team last Friday and Gregor spoke to the players and for everybody, the Scotland versuis England game is one of the biggest games of the Six Nations championship, so there is no motivation needed there.

“For us, we’ve talked a lot this week about being race and starting fast, so we want to get ourselves in a decent position where we are not chasing the game because we’ve conceded a few tries early on.

“The boys are looking forward to it. There were a lot of positives from that game against France and we’ve just got to build on them for this week.”

Scotland team to face England U20s: Watson, Johnston, Gwynn, Yule, Caqusau, Coates, Lock, Deans, Blyth-Lafferty, Norrie, McVie, Hart, McConnell, Douglas, Morris

Replacements: Parry, Smyth, Whitefield, Burke, Currie, Davey, Hocking, Ventise