Ireland 30 – Scotland 25 Under 20s
So Ireland beat Scotland Under 20s 30-25 in a game that Ireland looked like they had full control of after the opening 15 minutes where they raced into a 10-0 lead after a try from man of the match Jack O Sullivan and two kicks from Harry Byrne.
Ireland started this game at a very high tempo and looked like they had solved the issues of the Wales game where a leaky defence and poor control dogged their performance.
Scotland for their part came to play ball and like there senior counterparts who face Ireland later today tried to stifle the Irish attack at source by slowing down ruck ball and also pushing up hard in defence where they were lead by the centre pairing of Strafford Mc Dowell and Fraser Strachan.
They did struggle at scrum time where the Irish front row put them under all sorts of strain. Then slowly but surely through poor Irish play and also by stealing Irish line out ball. From an Irish perspective, It was a performance that mixed the brilliant with some of the failings that had cost Ireland in the other games where poor play at restart and loose defence cost the territory and points due to some sharp Scottish attack led by their 9 and 10 Charlie Chapman and Ross Thompson.
Noel Mc Namara’s charges will have an outshot at Championship glory by defeating England next weekend after Italy defeated Wales in Wales. This was a huge result for Italy who ran Ireland close in week 2 only being beaten by 4 points. In turn that result has now given them a chance at glory on by virtue of point’s difference.
Looking to next week, it will be a massive contest and you can be sure that Ireland will try and iron out some of the issues of the past few weeks. With players like Jack O Sullivan , Tommy O Brien and Michael Silvester in the Irish armoury you can sure they will try and fire Ireland to victory in Coventry next Friday.
By
Cian Mc Gibney
10/03/2018