The Scotland under-20 squad can take inspiration from the Glasgow Warriors’ URC title win as they aim for success themselves over the next couple of weeks, according to back-rower Jonny Morris.

After missing out on promotion last year in Kenya from the men’s World Rugby Trophy, Scotland now have home advantage in the same event at Hive Stadium in Edinburgh between Tuesday and July 17.

They desperately want to claim top spot in the eight-team tournament to get into the top tier Championship in 2025 and their Trophy campaign starts on Tuesday versus Samoa.

Morris, who will look to make an impact off the bench in this Pool A match, is a member of the Glasgow Warriors Academy and trains with the first team squad at Scotstoun regularly.

And he hopes the Warriors’ winning mindset and meticulous preparation for big games - which they showed regularly in recent weeks - has rubbed off on him.

“For myself as a full-time Academy player at Glasgow Warriors, this year has been brilliant for my development and being in and around the senior squad in the last couple of months as they built up to winning the URC title was excellent and shows me where I want to get to,” the 20-year-old who began his rugby journey at Perthshire RFC said.

“There are so many good coaches and experienced players to learn from at the Warriors so every day you are picking up something new and it is that detail and clarity that helps you to become a better rugby player.

“With the Scotland under-20s I also have good coaches and players around me to learn from and our forwards coach Fergus Pringle is very much into his detail so our pack is prepared and ready to put in some good performances.

“We know if we can do that then we have backs who can cause teams problems. The goal is to win silverware and promotion come July 17, but you cannot look further than the next game so all of our recent preparation has been with Samoa in mind.”


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For the Samoa match, head coach Kenny Murray has handed 18-year-old highly-rated tighthead prop Ollie Blyth-Lafferty a debut at this level along with scrum-half Conor McAlpine.

Blyth-Lafferty, who came through the Boroughmuir club and is now with Edinburgh Rugby in the academy, will be in the front-row alongside his older brother Jerry who is at hooker.

Biggar loosehead prop Ben White was a late call-up to the wider squad and could debut off the bench.

Scotland will want to get off to a flyer, but Murray knows Samoa will be tricky customers.

“Samoa are up first and we know that they will be a tough opponent,” Murray stated.

“We had a good result against them last year, but this is a completely different competition so we must make sure we are at the top of our game when we come up against them.”

The other matches on Tuesday are, in Pool A, Japan versus Hong Kong China at 11.45am and, in Pool B, Uruguay versus Kenya at 2.30pm and Netherlands versus USA at 7.45pm.

The Scotland match will be available to watch on BBC ALBA on Tuesday at 5.15pm.

Scotland U20 to take on Samoa:

Fergus Watson (Glasgow Warriors); Finlay Doyle (Loughborough University), Johnny Ventisei (Glasgow Warriors), Findlay Thomson (Watsonians), Geordie Gwynn (Ealing Trailfinders/Brunel University); Andrew McLean (Boroughmuir Bears), Conor McAlpine (Watsonians); Robbie Deans (Edinburgh Rugby), Jerry Blyth-Lafferty (Edinburgh Rugby), Ollie Blyth-Lafferty (Edinburgh Rugby), Euan McVie (Edinburgh Rugby), Ryan Burke (Glasgow Warriors), Liam McConnell (Edinburgh Rugby, C), Freddy Douglas (Edinburgh Rugby), Tom Currie (Edinburgh Rugby). Subs: Gavin Parry (Watsonians/Pontypridd RFC), Ben White (Biggar RFC), Callum Norrie (Glasgow Warriors), Ruaraidh Hart (Glasgow Warriors), Jonny Morris (Glasgow Warriors), Hector Patterson (Edinburgh Rugby), Kerr Yule (Glasgow Warriors), Jack Hocking (Edinburgh Rugby).