Boyland on the scoresheet as England U18 thrash Scotland U18 at Murrayfield

The scrum-half jinked his way through to score under the posts midway through the second period, as John Fletcher’s side ran in ten tries against a Scotland side featuring Boyland’s Bristol rugby Academy U18 teammate, Nathan Chamberlain.

The match, which was due to be played at Stirling RFC, was played behind-closed-doors so players could get valuable playing time, with the pitch at Bridgehaugh deemed unplayable after heavy snow.

“The players were pretty excited when they found out they were playing at Murrayfield, it’s a big pitch and that suits the way we want to play,” said England U18 head coach, John Fletcher.

“We trained well over the past couple of days on an artificial pitch and that prepared us well for this game.

“This is a new group of players and they are a young squad. The majority of them will go on to the Six Nations festival in Wales and they played well. In attack we caused Scotland problems in lots of different areas and we scored lots of different tries.

“There are things we will get better at both sides of the ball, but ultimately we want them to express themselves and they did that. We were as good in attack as we were in defence.”

England led 26-0 at the break with two tries from Jack Reeves and one each for Harry Barlow and Connor Doherty, while Josh Hodge kicked three conversions.

A second half hat-trick for Alfie Barbeary and tries for Rus Tuima, Blake Boyland, Jacob Morris, as well as four Hodge conversions, sealed victory. 

After an early penalty miss from Scotland, England stole lineout ball from inside their own half and Jack Reeves finished off Manu Vunipola’s break through midfield.

Harry Barlow then sniped through Scotland’s midfield from an England scrum on five metres with Hodge's conversion extending the lead to 14-0.

Connor Doherty then finished off England pressure going over in the corner for 19-0.

Great jinking feet saw Reeves dart through from Scotland’s 10m line with the conversion taking the score 26-0 at the break.

A pick and go by Bevan Rudd saw Rus Tuima bundle over for a fifth try which Hodge converted while Jacob Morris went over in the corner for 38-0. 

A superb driving maul from an England lineout saw Alfie Barbeary bundle over, before a quick tap and go saw Barbeary dot down and Hodge's conversion took the score to 50-0.

Blake Boyland went clear to touch down under the posts, while Barbeary charged over for a 10th - Hodge converting both.

Following Sunday’s fixture the U18s will next be involved against Wales on March 25th at Sardis Road, Pontypridd (KO 4.15pm) before the ‘Six Nations Festival’.

The festival, based in Wales, will see England U18s play Scotland at Ystrad Mynach (March 31st, KO 12pm), Italy at Cardiff Arms Park (April 4th, KO 12pm) and France at the same venue on April 8th (KO 5pm).