The official On Top Of The Moon ‘Junior Jock of the Match’ goes to…Matt Smith. It could really have gone to any of the back 5 in the pack who dominated the English side defensively, owned the breakdown and countered their opponents mauling game.
BACKS
Blair Kinghorn – 8
All class. This boy will tour Japan with the full squad in the summer. You heard it here first!
Darcy Graham – 7
More chances to showcase his defensive work than get on it in attack. Stuck to his task really well.
Rory Hutchinson – 7
Seemed to enjoy the extra space at 13 compared to his outings at 10 in the Junior RWC. Timed scoring pass to Kinghorn beautifully..
Tom Galbraith – 8
An absolute rock in defence all night. The English side had plenty of possession but foundered in midfield.
Robbie Nairn– 7
Maybe tried to do a bit too much himself at times but he’s a player who looks threatening every time he has the ball.
Adam Hastings – 8
Flew out of his line to help shut down the English midfield and showed great composure in leading his own backline.
Hugh Fraser – 8
Nippy 9 with nice breaks and great speed of thought. If he learns to whinge at the ref for 80 minutes and he’ll make a fine pro scrum half.
FORWARDS
Murray McCallum – 5
7 for his work in the loose but 3 for the scrum. It’s going to be a tough week for the front row in training this week…
Jake Kerr – 6
Another front row whose fine performance in the loose was let down a bit by some shaky setpiece work.
Callum Sheldon – 5
It was a tough night for the big lad from Leeds Uni, up against a powerful English scrum. Put in a shift in the loose to help minimise the damage.
Andrew Davidson – 8
In a squad of 23 who all showed a high work rate and great energy he still managed to stand out. If he can maintain that with another 2 stone of muscle he could be a great pro.
Scott Cummings – 8
Lead the side well and showed his eye for the try line once again. Does everything you could possibly want from a second row and does it all well.
Jamie Ritchie – 8
Possibly outshone by his back row colleagues early on but he get stronger and stronger and by the end he was dominating the breakdown almost singlehandedly.
Matt Smith – 8
Seemed to be channeling the spirit of Simone Favaro as he nailed crunching hit after crunching hit. Also a proper nuisance at the breakdown too.
Ally Miller – 7
He’s got the skills and the physicality but if he wants to play 8 for Scotland he needs a hook like Josh Strauss’ beard or David Denton’s lovely hair.
SUBSTITUTES
It was heartening to see little drop off from the intensity and attitude of the starting XV when the replacements came on. The stand out was Ben Robbins who, although he had no real chances to demonstrate his pace, showed some good defence and a nice line in attempting to jackal the ball.
Picture courtesy of Adrian Henry. Visit Rugby People for more of Adrian’s fine work.
On Top Of The Moon 
It’s harsh to give a better rating to Galbraith than to Hutchinson.
The pair was great in defense and in attack.
Nairn did not deserve 7… He was not that good.
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