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Rampant Scotland hit another century in World Rugby U20 Trophy
By Jon Newcombe
Scotland racked up another century of points at Hive Stadium in Edinburgh as they cruised to a second bonus-point win of the World Rugby U20 Trophy against an outgunned Hong Kong China.
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Mechanical engineering student Finlay Doyle scored his second hat-trick of the competition after crossing three times in the 123-15 romp against Samoa last Tuesday and at this rate is on course to become the first player in U20 Trophy history to get into double figures for a single tournament.
The current tournament record is jointly held by Samoa’s Robert Lilomaiava and Portugal’s Raffaele Storti, who has made the step up to Test level with ease as anyone lucky enough to witness his performances at last year’s Rugby World Cup will testify.
Scotland reached three figures with time nearly up thanks to Matthew Urwin’s 13th conversion of the match, the fly half only missing with two of his attempts in a remarkable display of goal kicking.
With Japan also on maximum points after picking up their second bonus point win of the tournament, top spot in Pool A – and a place in the U20 Trophy final – will be decided when they play Scotland in the final round of pool games on Friday.
Three-time U20 Trophy champions Japan put on a clinical show of finishing in beating Hong Kong China 105-20 in round one but it wasn’t until the second half that the floodgates opened against a much-improved Samoa.
Japan scored five tries before the break but poor goalkicking meant they only turned around 27-7 in front.
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Koharu Ebisawa scored a hat-trick in the match to take his tally for the tournament to four, whilst fellow wing Kent Iioka added one more try to his four-timer against Hong Kong China.
USA are well on course to booking a place in the final as Pool B winners after making it two wins from two against last year’s runners-up Uruguay.
The Junior All-Americans were matched by Los Teritos on the try count, with both sides crossing twice, but Benjamin Saunders and Oliver Kline kicked three penalties apiece to secure them victory.
USA will go into their final pool match with Kenya holding a three-point lead over the Netherlands at the top of the standings.
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The Netherlands have an outside chance of topping the pool in their debut tournament after beating Kenya 51-3 in the final match of the day.
Joris Smits scored two tries to add to his hat-trick in round one as the Dutch raced into a 41-3 half-time lead but they were only able to add two unconverted tries after the break.
The Netherlands are up against Uruguay in their final pool game and need to win that and hope Kenya do them a favour against USA to be in contention for the final and a shot at promotion to the U20 Championship in 2025.
