Hookers are not supposed to be the ones running age-grade rugby’s highlight reels. Wedged into the middle of a scrum every 90 seconds, the number 2 shirt is usually the unglamorous engine-room job, all set-piece graft and lineout calling, rarely the source of a team’s cutting edge.
That theory has taken a battering in Georgia this month. Joe Roberts, Scotland’s 20-year-old co-captain, scored twice in Sunday’s 44-26 fifth-place semi-final win over Argentina at Avchala Stadium in Tbilisi, taking his tournament tally to five tries in four games, according to World Rugby’s official coverage of the Junior World Championship. For a Scotland age-grade side chasing a first top-five finish since 2017, the Glasgow Warriors academy product has become the story of their tournament.
Look past the individual highlight reel, though, and a fuller picture of why Fergus Pringle’s side are 80 minutes from history emerges.
Joe Roberts Is Rewriting The Hooker’s Job Description
Roberts’ second try against Argentina, driven over from a lineout maul with 20 minutes left, arrived exactly when Scotland needed it. The Scots had led 24-12 before Argentina, reduced to 14 men for long spells through a string of yellow cards, hit back to within five points. Roberts’ score restored a two-score cushion Scotland never relinquished, before further tries from Jamie Stewart and Harvey Preston put the result beyond doubt.
It fits a pattern. Roberts, who captains alongside centre Ross Wolfenden and has played every minute Scotland could offer him this tournament, scored his first try against Argentina straight after the Pumitas lost scrum-half Benjamin Ledesma Arocena to a yellow card in the 22nd minute – Scotland punishing a numerical advantage rather than merely enjoying it. Five tries in four games from a front-row forward, at a tournament where Scotland have already accounted for Italy and Japan in the pool stages, is not a fluke of opportunity.
Fergus Pringle’s Conditioning Bet Is Paying Off
Pringle pointed to fitness rather than flair as the difference against Argentina. “I think our conditioning showed that last 20 minutes of the game, we finished the game strongly,” the head coach said after the match. “The guys were really composed throughout the whole game and physically we’re in a good place despite having played four games so far in a short space of time.”
That squad depth showed across the scoresheet: Ollie Blyth-Lafferty, Hamish MacArthur, Oliver McKenna and Harvey Preston all crossed alongside Roberts and winger Nairn Moncrieff, seven tries in total from seven different attacking situations. It is the kind of collective output that suggests Scotland’s tournament is being built on more than one standout individual, even as Roberts takes the headlines.
A Shot At Matching Scotland’s Best-Ever Finish
Victory over Wales in Friday’s fifth-place final would equal Scotland’s best-ever Junior World Championship result, a fifth-place finish last managed in 2017. It is a modest ambition next to the tournament’s showpiece: South Africa’s defence of the title against France, confirmed after Monday’s semi-finals, is what most neutrals will watch at Mikheil Meskhi Stadium on Saturday. But for a pathway that has already fed talent into the senior international set-up – the sort Gregor Townsend continues to draw on for the full Scotland Rugby side – Friday’s final in Tbilisi matters plenty in its own right.
Roberts will not get the headlines a back-three flyer would for the same tally. But five tries in four games from a hooker, captaining a team on the brink of matching its best finish in almost a decade, is exactly the kind of tournament that gets remembered.
