U20’s Head Coach Carl Hogg and the young Scots will set off for the States at the end of May for a week of intense training, which will include a warm-up fixture against Old Glory DC on Memorial Day, 27 May.

The camp follows the announcement that Scottish Rugby has taken a minority stake in the MLR expansion side Old Glory DC, with the opportunity to focus U20 preparations State-side the first example of the relationship in action. Old Glory is playing the first professional rugby in the history of the Washington DC market through a five-game exhibition season this spring, with the Scotland U20s as a cornerstone of that schedule.

Scotland U20 Head Coach, Carl Hogg, said: “This is great opportunity to get an extra week’s worth of preparation in a fantastic facility, and the added benefit of a good hard hit out against the newly formed Old Glory. This excellent match opportunity in a venue much closer to the Argentina time zone will give us a great springboard into the world championships.

“The learning and togetherness brought from working in an intense, performance-led residential camp will add a great deal to our preparations for two very tough games to start – New Zealand and South Africa – so it’ll be good to go into those games off the back of a good camp.”

“We expect this may be the most challenging match-up of our exhibition season,” said Old Glory DC chairman Chris Dunlavey. “But we’ll learn a lot about the players we’ve pulled together by testing them against the best, and we hope we’ll give the Scotland U20s a good contest before their pursuit of a world championship. What a great way to launch the relationship with our Scottish Rugby partners.”

In the 2019 competition Scotland U20 are in Pool C and will face six-time champions New Zealand, last year’s bronze medallists South Africa and an increasingly-impressive Georgian age-grade side, all of whom are ranked above the men in blue.

SCOTLAND U20 SCHEDULE

Tuesday 4 June: South Africa v Scotland (kick-off 10.30am)
Saturday 8 June: New Zealand v Scotland (kick-off 3.30pm)
Wednesday 12 June: Georgia v Scotland (kick-off 10.30am)