Kenny Murray admitted it was tough to take as his Scotland Under-20s side were overwhelmed 73-14 by South Africa at the World Rugby U20 Championship in Italy. It was a long afternoon for the Scots in Calvisano, particularly during a first half in which they conceded seven tries. The junior Springboks were 33-0 ahead after only 21 minutes. Seb Stephen, the Glasgow Warriors hooker, stemmed the bleeding with a try for Scotland after good work by Reuben Logan and Matthew Urwin converted but the South Africans scored two more tries before half-time to go in at the break 45-7 ahead. “We don’t like losing by that amount of points, particularly the players,” said Murray, the Scotland U20 head coach. “They obviously get a bit down on themselves. “South Africa are a good side. They’ve got a real good balance in their team. They can try and overpower you physically, and then they’ve got so much gas in their team that they can pick you off. “The first half was really difficult. We've conceded 45 points, that was really tough, but I was really pleased with how the boys reacted after half-time. The 20 minutes after half-time, they didn't score in that period.” It was Scotland’s best spell, despite them being down to 14 men for the first 10 minutes of the second half following Charlie Moss’ yellow card for a high tackle. They kept South Africa at bay and the defence was excellent, notably from Jack Brown who held up Cheswill Jooste over the line. But the young Boks finished strongly, scoring four more tries in the final quarter. Oliver Finlay-Russell, the Edinburgh flanker, replied for the Scots, with Brown converting. South Africa scored 11 tries in total, through Jaco Williams (two), Thando Biyela, Dominic Malgas, Oliver Reid, Gilermo Mentoe, JD Erasmus, Ceano Everson (two), Fano Linde and Hassiem Pead. Vusi Moyo and Ian van der Merwe added four and five conversions, respectively. Scotland’s defeat followed earlier losses to England and Australia and they finished bottom of Pool A. They will now have two play-off games to determine final positions in the 12-team tournament, with the next game on Monday in Verona, with Italy their likely opponents. Scorers: South Africa: Tries: Williams 2, Biyela, Malgas, Reid, Mentoe, Erasmus, Everson 2, Linde, Pead. Cons: Moyo 4, van der Merwe 5. Scotland: Try: Stephen, Finlayson-Russell. Con: Urwin, Brown. Yellow card: Charlie Moss (Sco, 40min). South Africa: 15. Gilermo Mentoe; 14. Cheswill Jooste, 13. Gino Cupido, 12. Dominic Malgas, 11. Jaco Williams; 10. Vusi Moyo, 9. Ceano Everson; 1. Oliver Reid, 2. Juandre Schoeman, 3. JD Erasmus, 4. Jaco Grobbelaar, 5. Morne Venter, 6. Thando Biyela (capt), 7. Matt Romao, 8. Fano Linde. Replacements: 16. Siphosethu Mnebelele, 17. P Kubheka, 18. Hendrik Lubbe, 19. JJ Theron, 20. Bathobele Hlekani, 21. Hassiem Pead, 22. Ian van der Merwe, 23. Demitre Erasmus. Scotland: 15. Jack Brown (Edinburgh); 14. Nairn Moncrieff (Edinburgh), 13. Angus Hunter (Heriot’s), 12. Jack Hocking (unattached), 11. Cameron van Wyk (Ayr); 10. Matthew Urwin (Glasgow Warriors), 9. Hector Patterson (Edinburgh); 1. Jake Shearer (Glasgow Warriors), 2. Seb Stephen (Edinburgh Acad/Glasgow Warriors), 3. Jamie Stewart (Edinburgh), 4. Mark Fyffe (Univ of Edinburgh), 5. Charlie Moss (Montpellier), 6. Oliver Duncan (Edinburgh), 7. Freddy Douglas (Edinburgh; capt), 8. Reuben Logan (Sale). Replacements: 16. Joe Roberts (Glasgow Warriors), 17. Will Pearce (Cardiff Metropolitan Univ/Bristol Bears), 18. Ollie Blyth-Lafferty (Edinburgh), 19. Bart Godsell (Loughborough Univ), 20. Oliver Finlayson-Russell (Univ of St Andrews), 21. Noah Cowan (Brunel Univ/Ealing Trailfinders, 22. Kerr Yule (Glasgow Warriors), 23. Jed Findlay (Exeter). Referee: Ben Breakspear (Wales).