Emerging Scotland to Play Italy Under-23s

On Saturday, 14 December at Hive Stadium, Emerging Scotland will take on Italy Under-23s.

This will be Emerging Scotland’s first game, involving the best young players in the country and coached by the Scotland men’s national team coaching staff.

The match forms part of the National Academy pilot programme which was launched in September to add increased value to the development of a selected group of promising players. Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend has coached the players during the programme along with forwards coach John Dalziel, defence coach Steve Tandy, scrum coach Pieter De Villiers and skills/contact coach Pete Horne.

The players involved in the pilot programme were selected from Scottish Rugby’s Regional Academies and Glasgow Warriors/Edinburgh Rugby Senior Academies.

The Emerging Scotland match is part of the Scottish Rugby Male Performance Pathway which was outlined earlier this year, including A team matches for Scotland, Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh Rugby.

Scotland A defeated Chile last weekend, in their first match since 2022 with Edinburgh and Glasgow both playing A matches recently.

The Emerging Scotland squad will be announced in the coming weeks and tickets are available now.

Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend said: “This fixture enables us to bring our best young players together, have a week of training with national team coaches, and take on a quality international side.

“Similar fixtures that will look to expose emerging talented Scottish players to high level competition will aim to be included going forward. Probably the most important element of a young player’s development is learning by playing at a higher level than you’ve previously experienced. The game has always been the best teacher and we believe that our players will reap the benefits from this experience.

“We’ve enjoyed our involvement in coaching the young players through the national academy. It takes us back to the reasons why you are a coach in the first place, to help people improve.

“This has allowed us first hand to learn more about our best young developing players by working with them more regularly.”

Scottish Rugby High-Performance Advisor, David Nucifora said: “Connecting talented players who are progressing through the pathway to the national team coaches and to the opportunity of playing an international fixture adds huge value to their development.

“Our aim needs to be to find ways of expediting the development of young Scottish players capable of playing at the pinnacle of the game and I believe an experience such as this will be significantly beneficial.”