Club international/Ireland 20 Scotland 15:Fine match, pity about the small crowd. Two evenly balanced sides, both with plenty of positive intentions who wanted to run with the ball, made for an entertaining, high-tempo AIB club international at Donnybrook last night. It remained in the balance right up until its last act.
As you'd expect from any side coached by Brian Walsh, the Irish looked to play a bright brand of rugby, but having built up what looked like a reasonably unassailable lead were pegged back and left hanging on desperately by the stronger-finishing Scots, who themselves tapped penalties, ran from impressive depth and offloaded the ball tellingly.
They also had the more accurate lineout and stronger - though the Irish pack had the more potent maul - scrum which was probably a contributing factor to their impressive finish.
Up front, John O'Connor made his presence felt at the breakdown and in open spaces, making good decisions on the ball and saving a couple of tries with his covering tackles while Damien Varley atoned for a few wayward throws by carrying effectively.
Barry Keeshan kicked well out of hand and off the ground, landing five penalties out of six, while Eric Moloney was as good as any back on view. The Clontarf flyer Max Rantz McDonald and the unorthodox Cronan Healy - turning up all over the place - provided oomph up front.
The Scots were quicker into their stride, scrumhalf Richard Snedden and co initially eschewing three-pointers with a rash of early penalties, the fourth of which (reversed for dissent) saw Andrew Skeen put them ahead. The Irish, hitherto confined to defending, broke out when O'Connor latched onto Keeshan's cross-kick and broke upfield, dummying outside to Healy before Max McDonald dropped the pass inside. Even so, from this foray, the Scots were penalised on their own put-in and from Ruairi Cushion's quick tap, David McKechnie hit Moloney's flat skip pass to break the line and time his pace for McDonald to score in the corner.
For a team cobbled together in less than a week, it was a sharply executed move. So too though was Scotland's counterattacking try to level matters, albeit off a poor box-kick by Cushion off a big defensive lineout maul. Left winger Rory Couper gathered and ran infield to link with Graham Thompson, who beat one man and fed Marc Teague to skate in by the opposite corner flag.
Moloney and hooker Damien Varley twice put Ireland on the front foot and Keeshan regained the lead as Scottish spoiling at ruck time saw the penalties flow the other way, but on half-time Simon Crawford was binned for playing the ball in the tackle, though Skeen's 40-metre kick fell short. Keeshan pushed Ireland further ahead with two penalties, the second for a high tackle on the influential Healy by Bruce McNeil, which saw him binned, either side of another try-saving tackle by O'Connor. Healy then drew a late block by lock Damien Kelly from which Keeshan's penalty was short.
McDonald and Keeshan having made inroads, not content with his earlier misdemeanour Kelly went into a ruck over the top and was lucky to stay on the pitch. Via an upright, Keeshan made it 20-8.
But the Scots, replenished by what seemed a superior bench, finished much the stronger and sustained phased attacks eventually pierced some brave defending for replacement Graeme Dodds to score, Stephen Ruddick converting.
Back the Scots came but Sam Cronin, the replacement Irish scrumhalf, hauled back Colin Goudie yards from the line. From the resultant penalty, Scotland opted for a scrum and went with Ruddick skip-passing to Couper as they tried to outflank the Irish defence but, amazingly, the left winger spilled the pill with literally the game's last play.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 7 mins: Skeen pen 0-3; 12: McDonald try 5-3; 18: Keeshan pen 8-3; 34: Teague try 8-8; 36: Keeshan pen 11-8 (half-time 11-8); 45: Keeshan pen 14-8; 50: Keeshan pen 17-8; 63: Keeshan pen 20-8; 78: Dodds try, Ruddick con 20-15.
IRELAND: D McKechnie (Greystones); C Healy (Cork Constitution), G Stafford (Lansdowne), E Moloney (Dolphin), M R McDonald (Clontarf); B Keeshan (Dolphin), R Cushion (Old Belvedere); M Gately (Highfield), D Varley (Garryowen), S Shawe (Ballymena); A Maher (Lansdowne, capt), S O'Connor (Cork Constitution); S Crawford (Clontarf), H Hogan (St Mary's College), J O'Connor (UL Bohemians). Replacements: R Sweeney (St Mary's College) for Shawe, P Malone (Garryowen) for Hogan (both 61 mins), S Cronin (UCC) for Cushion (67 mins), A Kinsley (Garryowen) for Keeshan, A Finn (Shannon) for Moloney (both 71 mins), D Murray (Cork Constitution) for Varley, M O'Connell (Cork Constitution) for Maher (both 72 mins).
Sinbinned: Crawford (40-50 mins).
SCOTLAND: S Ruddick; M Teague, G Thompson, M Clapperton, R Couper; A Skeen, R Snedden; B McNeill, S Crombie, J Welsh; D Kelly, A Adam; T McVie (capt), R Weston, A Martyn. Replacements: D Brown for Clapperton (half-time), G Mountford for McVie (53-60 mins) and for McNeil (60 mins), G Dodds for McVie, G Oommen for Martyn (both 66 mins), G Cottrell for Skeen (72 mins), McNeil for Welsh (74 mins), C Goudie for Teague (77 mins).
Sinbinned: McNeil (50-60 mins).
Referee: T Wigglesworth (RFU).
