Douglas & Ventisei to co-captain Scotland at U20 Championship

BBC News

17 hours ago

Freddy Douglas and Johnny Ventisei will co-captain Scotland at the upcoming World Rugby Under-20 Championship in Italy.Having led the team during this year's Under-20 Six Nations, Edinburgh's Douglas and Glasgow Warriors' Ventisei will fulfil the same leadership roles this summer.Nineteen of the 30-man squad are made up of Edinburgh (10) and Glasgow (nine) players.Three of the squad have made debuts for Scottish professional sides in the past season as Douglas, who earned a senior Scotland cap last autumn, and Jack Brown featured for Edinburgh in the URC while Seb Stephen recently made his Glasgow bow away to Leinster.Scotland will play England on 29 June, Australia on 4 July and South Africa on 9 July in the group stages of the competition.Head coach Kenny Murray said: "We've had a long preparation block with a wider squad and a really strong group to pick from."The group took some confidence from beating Ireland in the friendly last week, but there was also plenty for us to work on and we know we'll have to be better in the Championship."The group-stage fixtures will obviously be tough, but we've trained well and the opportunity is there for the players to put in 80-minute performances that really show what we're capable of."