Gavin Harper February 1, 2019
Scotland U20 Head Coach Carl Hogg admitted his side made too many errors as they were beaten 32-22 by their Italian counterparts at Netherdale this evening (Friday).

Hogg’s side started slowly but showed some good touches in the opening 40 minutes against a big, strong Italian side whose forward pack dominated the tight exchanges.

The Italians led 11-3 at the break, but Scotland scored two tries in four second half minutes to take control of the match, before the visitors came roaring back, scoring three more tries in the second period to secure maximum points in Gala.

Immediately after the match, Hogg said “frustration” was his overriding emotion, adding: “There was a huge amount of effort and endeavour, I just thought we lacked accuracy, especially in our exit zone. I thought we put ourselves under pressure.”

The former Scotland back-row was keen to take positives from the match, especially the second half period when lock Charlie Jupp and captain Connor Boyle went over.

“I think we showed ourselves the template in that 20 minutes after half-time when we were nice and composed. We put pressure on them, got multi-phase, got speed on the ball and we looked a dangerous side.

“We didn’t do that consistently over the 80 minutes.

“Because our error count was so high, it’s hard to maintain intensity. We came into the game wanting to play at speed but our error count was high and it was difficult to maintain that.

“A lot of our errors came from simple, basic things.”

Hogg added he felt his side “weathered the storm” after their slow start, adding: “We had a good 10/15 minute period after half-time and I thought we’d built momentum – it wasn’t at the front-end of the game, it was in the second 20 minutes of the second half.”

Hogg was, though, encouraged by parts of his side’s performance.

“When we get it right, we look like a good rugby side. We just didn’t get it right for the 80 minute period, We probably had a 20-minute window of what this group can achieve.

“There’s definitely talent within this grou