Scotland Under 20 coach Rob Moffat has selected his squad of 26 to compete at the IRB TOSHIBA Junior World Championship in Japan, including seven new faces.

Moffat gave his players every opportunity to stake a claim for a place in the final cut, making his selection just in time for the IRB deadline this afternoon, following a full contact head-to-head amongst his players at Lasswade.

The seven new faces join the squad following the side’s most successful ever Six Nations, Under 19 captain Grant Gilchrist earning a place alongside fellow forwards Robert Harley, Ryan Wilson and Grant Shiells, while Alex Dunbar, James Knight and Steven Aitken have been drafted into the backs.

“Yesterday was a great opportunity for the players to play another match of high intensity rugby which helps the development of our game and was part of our programme for the World Cup," said Moffat, formerly Scotland's Sevens coach.

"If we have got that right then this should be an even stronger squad than that of the 6 Nations.

“The World Cup is a fantastic environment to be in. Some of these players will go on to play professional rugby and this is the time for them to stand up and make that known. It’s up to them to make their mark on that stage and if these boys keep improving and developing then we can definitely look forward to the World Cup.

“One of the games in our pool is against England, whom we lost to in the Six Nations. We also face Samoa and Japan and they are unknown quantities in some respects so we’re not getting carried away here. We know where we are and what we’ve got to do so importantly, with three weeks to go before we go to Japan, we continually develop our game.”

Scotland have one final preparation fixture against Ireland under-20 on Sunday 24 May at Fort Matilda, Greenock (kick-off 3pm) before leaving for Japan the following Friday (29 May) where they will face Samoa (Friday 5 June), England (Tuesday 9 June) and hosts Japan (Saturday 13 June) in Pool B.

Scotland squad: Backs - Peter Jericevich (Glasgow Hawks) *, Henry Pyrgos (Wimbourne), Andrew White (Glasgow Hawks) **, Alex Dunbar (Selkirk) **, Robbie Johnston (Leeds University and Leeds Carnegie), James Knight (Bedford), Ashleah McCulloch (Aberdeen Grammar) ** Steven Aitken (Aberdeen Grammar) **, Grant Anderson (Ayr) *, Peter Horne (Glasgow Warriors), Paul Loudon (Durham University and Edinburgh Accies) ; Forwards - Fraser Brown CAPTAIN (Watsonians)*, Finlay Gillies (Heriot’s) **, Gavin Cameron (Stirling County) **, David Morton (Bridgwater and Albion), Douglas Orr (Haddington) **, Grant Shiells (Kelso), Nick Campbell (Glasgow Hawks) **, Grant Gilchrist (Stirling County) *, Richard Gray (Glasgow Warriors), Robert Harley (West of Scotland) **, Struan Dewar (Heriot’s) **, Chris Fusaro (Heriot’s) *, Stuart McInally* (Watsonians), Ryan Wilson (London Scottish)

* Denotes a member of the Scottish National Contracted Academy
** Denotes a member of the Scottish Rugby National Academy supported by the Scottish Institute of Sport