Shaun Connor’s side were 13-3 up at half time through a Jarrod Evans penalty and an individual try for inside centre Daniel Jones, converted by outside half Evans. Adam Hastings scored Scotland’s only points of the half through a penalty on 35 minutes and the Scots were also reduced to 14 men twice during the first half through yellow cards.
The Welsh youngsters came out strongly in the second half. They looked dangerous with the ball in hand, the team combining to produce two well-worked tries for replacement wing Shaun Pearce. Hastings kept Scotland in touch with two penalties and converted a George Taylor try to bring the side to 23-16.
Mistakes started to creep into Wales’ defensive play and when Tom Phillips was yellow carded within the final 10 minutes, Scotland got their second score through left wing Robbie Nairn. Wales now play England on Tuesday after the English demolished Portugal 62-5 in their opening game.
Wales Under 18 team manager Will Thomas said, “It was a solid first outing. We looked comfortable in the first half and scored some well worked tries but we lost our way slightly at the end. We have some bumps and bruises to assess over the next 24 to 48 hours but we will now turn our attentions to preparing for England. We will need to up our game considerably in order to compete with them on Tuesday.”
Wales scorers: Tries: D Jones, S Pearce (2); Con: J Evans; Pens: J Evans (2)
Scotland scorers: Tries : G Taylor, R Nairn; : A Hastings; Pens: A Hastings (3)
Wales Under 18 team: Joe Gage; Rhys Gealy (Shaun Pearce), Owen Watkin, Daniel Jones (Matthew Pearce), Elis-Wyn Benham (Barnaby Nightingale); Jarrod Evans, Carl Lewis (Matthew Aubrey); Harrison Walsh (Robert Lewis), Liam Belcher, Keiron Assiratti (Sam Matthews), Matthew Dodd, Seb Davies, Lloyd Phillips (Tom Phillips), Josh Cole, Harrison Keddie
