Johnny Ventisei Interview: How learning from Sione Tuipulotu has prepared the new Scotland Under-20s skipper
Johnny Ventisei leads Scotland in the Under-20 Six Nations this year
©Scottish Rugby
This is a big calendar year for the Scotland Under-20 squad and it all begins on Friday evening against Italy at Hive Stadium in Edinburgh with an opening age-grade Six Nations clash.
Following on from this tournament, Scotland will then take part in the World Rugby U20 Championship for the first time since 2019 so they will be keen to build up some momentum ahead of the summer over the next few weeks.
Last year, the Under-20 Six Nations was tough for Scotland as no wins saw them finish bottom of the pile, but they regrouped and went on to win the World Rugby Trophy.
Of the matchday 23 named to face Italy on Friday, just 11 of them have been capped before at this level, but skipper Johnny Ventisei still believes that confidence from their Trophy success can be taken into this campaign.
“Definitely,” the Glasgow Warriors centre, 19, told TRU.
“Some of my favourite rugby memories and experiences so far were in the Trophy and I think we can take a lot of confidence from that because a number of the boys are still here.
“It does seem like a while ago, but the style of rugby that we played during the Trophy has been worked on and further implemented for this campaign and I am excited for this Six Nations tournament.
“We set our goal from day one last summer that we wanted to win the Trophy. We knew that you don’t often get a chance to win something on home soil and we wanted to do Scotland proud.
“We wanted to win from the start and we knew that Scotland had to be back at the top level of Under-20 rugby and in that respect, it was mission accomplished.
“The fact that the games were at Hive Stadium means that when we are back there for the Italy game [this Friday], it will give us good memories and we need to build on those now.”
‘I have been trying to learn from people like Sione Tuipulotu in terms of leadership’
Ventisei, who has Italian family connections which makes this match even more special for him, has taken over the captaincy this year from Edinburgh Rugby back-row Liam McConnell who is now too old for the programme.
The new skipper played several times in 2024 so knows what it is all about at this level and, while in and around Scotstoun as a senior academy player, he has had plenty of strong leaders to reach out to for captaincy advice.
“In the Warriors environment, we have a lot of leaders and I have been trying to learn from people like Sione Tuipulotu, Stafford McDowall and Kyle Steyn in terms of leadership,” Ventisei, who came through the ranks at GHA at St Aloysius’ College, explained.
“I was captain of GHA during my youth rugby days. I was first XV captain at school and I was captain of the Scotland Sevens team that won gold at the Youth Commonwealth Games in Trinbago in 2023.
“Captaining this Under-20 team prior to the Six Nations in warm-up games has been very helpful while just watching the way Liam McConnell did it last year has given me plenty of pointers.
“And we have a great leadership group here in the 20s and I can bounce ideas off others.”
‘These boys are not in there because there is nobody else, they are in there because they are good players’
A whole host of players will make their debuts for Scotland Under-20s on Friday night including Loughborough University's Bart Godsell and Northampton Saints' Reuben Logan - son of former Scottish international Kenny Logan - who has played a large chunk of his rugby for Leicester Lions in National One this season.
The nature of Under-20 rugby is that it is cyclical of course, and head coach Kenny Murray has backed the new faces to do a good job.
“These boys are not in there because there is nobody else, they are in there because they are good players who are keeping other good players out of the squad,” Murray stated.
“There’s a lot of Under-19s in there as well, which just shows you the quality of some of those young guys coming through.
“You’ve got Oliver McKenna [Glasgow Warriors] at loosehead prop, Joe Roberts [Glasgow Warriors] at hooker and Ollie Blyth-Lafferty at tighthead, so that is an all Under-19 front-row.
“At lock, you have Dan Halkon [Glasgow Warriors], who is also Under-19, so four out of our starting front five are in that category. Dan played Scotland Under-18s last year, then joined the Glasgow academy and since then, he’s played against Ulster Under-23s and in a couple of ‘A’ games, so as a young guy he has played a lot of really good games. He is a big man and we are excited to see how he goes.
“And in the back-row, Christian Lindsay [Edinburgh] is actually Under-18s. He has been in the 18s programme for the last year and a half and has shown up as a player of real talent. We’ve had him in with us and he’s played in our training matches since December, so we know he’s ready to go.
“We are all looking forward to the Italy game.”
Scotland under-20 squad to face Italy: Jack Brown; Guy Rogers, Johnny Ventisei (C), Kerr Yule, Fergus Watson; Matthew Urwin, Noah Cowan; Oliver McKenna, Joe Roberts, Ollie Blyth-Lafferty, Charlie Moss, Dan Halkon, Christian Lindsay, Billy Allen, Reuben Logan. Subs: Seb Stephen, Jake Shearer, Ryan Whitefield, Bart Godsell, Oliver Duncan, Hector Patterson, Ross Wolfenden, Nairn Moncrieff.
.jpg "Henry Pollock, who was part of the England U20s set-up last term, scored two tries off the bench")
