Scotland head coach Kenny Murray admits he was left frustrated by his side’s poor game management during a 37-29 defeat to Wales in the first match of the U20s Six Nations but he was proud of the efforts put in by his players for the majority of the game.

Scotland were in the game right up until the final 10 minutes but a yellow card for Alex O’Driscoll saw Wales take advantage of the extra man and they scored two tries to take the victory. Murray was visibly frustrated by the loss and reckons it was a big learning curve for his squad who were punished for every error.

Murray felt his players tried to overplay at times and they couldn’t take advantage of their decision to play into the wind during the first half and they went in just three points behind at the break. Kerr Yule’s try put them in front early in the second half and it was an end to end battle but a bit of indiscipline cost them.

And Murray said: “Really disappointed. We need to take that on the chin as a group, it was a game we should have won. We managed the game well in the first half, turnovers hurt us a bit but at half time we were pretty happy. We spoke about game management but we never managed it well enough. Our 9s and 10s probably overplayed a bit and we lost a couple of cheap lineouts and when we made some changes we lost a couple of penalties in the scrum which went scrum, lineout drive and ties so we’re really frustrated because we felt it was a game we should have won.

“I know it’s a big level for the boys but at the end of the day we’ve got to be better than that. We’ve just got to manage the game better than we did. We overplayed at times and they capitalised on it and the consequences of errors in international level were shown out there.

“I was saying that to the boys coming off that there was a lot of really good stuff. We looked good at times and collision wise the boys went toe to toe. Wales have some bloody good players. That back row are all playing in the URC, the No 8 {Morgan Morse} is a quality player so we dealt with them really well. I’d never fault the effort of the boys, they worked hard out there but we’ve just got to take it on the chin and be a bit more clinical and manage the game better if we want to win at this level.”

READ MORE: Wales 37-29 Scotland: U20 Six Nations starts with defeat in opener

The moment of indiscipline from O’Driscoll had a major effect on the game as it allowed Wales to get the victory and Murray insists the debutant needs to learn to deal with his emotions better after a frustrating first appearance in a blue shirt.

O’Driscoll had given away a penalty in the scrum and then gave some backchat to the referee for a 10 yard penalty before his deliberate knock on led to a yellow card to give the home side a huge opportunity.

And Murray added: “He’s came off the bench and struggled a bit in the scrummage and got frustrated with it. He’s got to manage his emotions better and not give away cheap penalties. Some of our discipline was good at times. Some decisions from the referee maybe didn’t go our way. Ewan McVie was down injured and he still let the game play on which was disappointing. Alex has got to manage it, he’s a big boy and he’s got to manage his emotions.”