Scotland were crowned Girls' Home International champions at Mullingar yesterday but Ireland beat a highly fancied England side 72 to finish runners-up for the first time since 1991.

Ireland left their best golf to last on a day of incessant rain and a difficult wind.

After losing to the Scots on the opening day and halving with Wales, the Irish girls played steadily yesterday to win the foursomes 2-1 and the singles 5-1. Pamela Murphy and Deirdre Judge gave the Irish the ideal start when beating Liza Walters and Marie Allen on the 18th and Claire Coughlan and Martina Gilen followed with a 4 and 3 win over Rachel Adby and Olivia Briggs.

Irish Close champion Murphy and Cork's Coughlan took 3 1/2 points each out of their six matches with Murphy beating English number one Liza Walters on the 15th while Coughlan beat Sarah Heath by the same margin.

Deridre Judge, a 2 and 1 winner over Fame More, Aida Burke, who beat Olivia Briggs 2 up, and Martina Gillen, who beat Marie Allen on the 17th, were all heroes on the day.

Scotland laid the foundation for their first success in four years with a 3-0 whitewash of the Welsh in the foursomes. Needing only two marches from the singles they were quickly in control with Vikki Laing beating Becky Brewerton on the 12th, while Anne Walker was even more impressive in winning 8 and 7 against Sarah Jones.

Laura Moffat made it five wins from six matches when she beat Laura Archer on the 18th.