Kenny Murray has made five personnel changes – two of them enforced – to his Scotland Under-20s starting XV ahead of tomorrow lunch-time’s Junior World Trophy clash against the USA in Nairobi, Kenya.
Winger Geordie Gwynn, who scored a hat-trick as the team got their campaign off to a flyer against Zimbabwe on Saturday, has picked up a facial injury and been replaced by Logan Jarvie.
Meanwhile, hooker Jerry Blyth-Lafferty is out with a twisted thumb, so Corey Tait takes over the No.2 jersey.
“We’re just monitoring them both at the moment,” Murray said. “They’re not fit to play on Thursday, and we’ll make a decision on whether they’ll be able to stay [in the squad for the remainder of the tournament] over the next day or so.”
The other changes see Findlay Thomson come in for Kerr Yule at inside-centre, Robbie Deans swap in for Craig Davidson at loose-head prop and Jonny Morris take over from Sam Derrick at No.8.
With more civil unrest on the streets of Nairobi expected tomorrow, the team’s captain’s run has been moved to a nearby school, but Murray insisted that there has been no meaningful disruption in the preparation for this match, unlike the build-up to the Zimbabwe game when the squad were confined to their hotel at the start of the week.
“There’s a mall about 10-minutes’ drive away so we went there this morning for a coffee, which was good,” he said. “We’ve got through absolutely everything we’ve wanted to do this week and we feel we’re in a good place.”
The USA lost 33-31 in their opening game against Uruguay but Murray says his team are expecting a tough challenge.
“They are a pretty physical side, they want to be aggressive in both attack and defence, and they have a really strong centre partnership with two really good ball carriers, so we are going to have to be ready for that,” he said.
“They probably don’t have the same running threats but are definitely a much better organised team than Zimbabwe, so it’s going to be a tough game.”
Scotland U20s (v USA at Nyayo National Stadium, Nairobi, Kenya, tomorrow, noon BST): D King; L Jarvie, B Salmon, F Thomson, F Douglas; A McLean, B Afshar (co-captain); R Deans, C Tait, C Norrie, E Erskine, J Parkinson, L McConnell (co-captain), J Smith, J Morris. Substitutes: F Duraj, C Davidson, O Minnis, R Hart, S Derrick, H Patterson, K Yule, M Reid.
