Kenny Murray has named his Scotland Under-20 squad for the World Rugby U20 Championship in Italy but the coach still doesn’t know if there will be relegation at this summer’s tournament. The young Scots are back in the elite competition for the first time in six years after earning promotion last season by winning the second-tier World Rugby U20 Trophy. Their ‘reward’ is an extremely testing group which has seen them paired with England, Australia and South Africa in Pool A. It’s a huge step up for Scotland but one which Murray is relishing. He has named a 30-man squad for the 12-team tournament but remains in the dark about whether or not the bottom-placed side after the play-offs will be relegated, even though the competition is kicking off a week on Sunday, with Scotland’s opening fixture against England in Verona. “We’re hoping to get confirmation before this tournament begins,” said Murray. “There's discussions going on at World Rugby about expanding the tournament, so we're still waiting for final clarification as to whether that's definitely happening and whether there's going to be relegation or not. I'm hoping to find out next week at the latest. “All I've heard is that there's definitely some motivation to go to 16 teams. That's as much as we know at the moment, but obviously we'll need to know before the tournament starts. It would be good to go there without that extra pressure of relegation.” After the opener against England, Scotland will play Australia in Viadana on July 4 and South Africa in Calvisano on July 9. They will then play two ranking play-off games to determine their final position. Freddy Douglas and Johnny Ventisei will co-captain Scotland, with both having had experience of leading the team during the 2025 U20 Six Nations. Douglas, who made his full Scotland debut against Portugal in the autumn, is one of a handful of players in the squad to have played pro club rugby. The highly talented flanker featured seven times for Edinburgh last season. Jack Brown, the full-back who scored a hat-trick in the impressive win over Ireland U20s last week, also made his Edinburgh debut and hooker Seb Stephen played for Glasgow Warriors against Leinster, impressing in a narrow defeat in Dublin. In addition, Reuben Logan made a brief appearance off the bench for Northampton Saints against Exeter in the Premiership. The squad is relatively experienced, with 29 of the 30 having played in either or both the 2024 World Rugby U20 Trophy or 2025 U20 Six Nations. Jed Findlay, the full-back who featured in last week’s win over Ireland U20, is in a tournament squad for the first time. Forwards Will Pearce and Oliver Finlayson-Russell are the other players yet to feature in a competitive match for Scotland U20. Both were in the U20 Six Nations squad but did not make an appearance. Jack Hocking, the versatile Edinburgh back, is included after injury and could make his first competitive appearance since featuring for Hawick in October last year but Guy Rodgers misses out with a hamstring issue. Forwards: Ollie Blyth-Lafferty (Edinburgh), Dylan Cockburn (Melrose RFC), Freddy Douglas (Edinburgh; co-capt), Oliver Duncan (Edinburgh), Oliver Finlayson-Russell (Univ of St Andrews), Mark Fyffe (Univ of Edinburgh), Bart Godsell (Loughborough Univ), Dan Halkon (Glasgow), Reuben Logan (Northampton), Oliver McKenna (Glasgow), Charlie Moss (Montpellier), Will Pearce (Cardiff Metropolitan Univ/Bristol), Joe Roberts (Glasgow), Jake Shearer (Glasgow), Seb Stephen (Glasgow), Jamie Stewart (Edinburgh), Ben White (Melrose/Edinburgh). Backs: Jack Brown (Edinburgh), Isaac Coates (Edinburgh), Noah Cowan (Brunel Univ/Ealing), Jed Findlay (Exeter Chiefs), Jack Hocking (Edinburgh), Angus Hunter (Heriot’s), Nairn Moncrieff (Edinburgh), Hector Patterson (Edinburgh), Matthew Urwin (Glasgow), Cameron van Wyk (Ayr), Johnny Ventisei (Glasgow; co-capt), Fergus Watson (Glasgow), Kerr Yule (Glasgow).