Under-20 Six Nations: Scotland 15 Ireland 33
Following the disappointment of losing out to defending champions England in the opening round, Ireland captain Eanna McCarthy believes a more clinical attacking edge was the catalyst behind his side’s victory over Scotland in the Under-20 Six Nations at the Hive Stadium on Saturday.
After the hurt that was left from their 19-3 reversal at the hands of the English on home soil, Ireland were determined to get their first win of the Championship in the Edinburgh venue. Thanks to a hat-trick of first-half tries from Charlie Molony – in addition to fine finishes over the whitewash by Billy Corrigan and Oisin Minogue in either half - Neil Doak’s visitors emerged from this round two clash in the Scottish capital with a maximum tally of five points.
“There was a big week’s training and a few fix-ups from last week. We had nine entries [against England] and we only converted one, whereas this week we had 15 and converted a lot more. I’m very proud of the lads, but it was a fierce physical battle with Scotland. They’re always a good team, so you never want to take them for granted,” McCarthy remarked after Saturday’s game.
“We know we’re a good side. We created so many opportunities against England and we just missed out [because of] last ball here, dropped ball there. There wasn’t much getting into it. There was a bit of hurt left from it, but there wasn’t much to say to the lads. They were fairly well motivated themselves.”
After spectacularly touching down with just over 90 seconds gone on the clock, Molony got on the end of a delicate crossfield kick by Sam Wisniewski for his second try of the action on 13 minutes.
The hard-working Corrigan added his name to the scoresheet by rounding off an enterprising attack just shy of the first-quarter mark, before Molony wrapped up his hat-trick and an Ireland bonus point in ruthless fashion on 22 minutes.
Scotland finally opened their account with a five-pointer from Fergus Watson just four minutes later and even though Ireland established a comfortable 26-5 interval lead, there were some nervous moments after Joe Roberts added a second Scottish try on the restart.
Yet the introduction of Munster hopeful Minogue (nephew of the late Anthony Foley and son of former Ireland women’s international Rosie Foley) proved to be a masterstroke by Irish head coach Doak as he dived over off an intricate lineout move mere seconds after his introduction as a 59th minute replacement.
A resolute Scotland dotted down once again via scrumhalf Hector Patterson inside the final quarter but while Ireland came up short in their quest for a sixth try in the closing moments, they had already done more than enough to earn an emphatic victory.
After kick-starting the tournament with two games in the space of nine days, Ireland will now be able to enjoy an extended build-up to their third round encounter with Wales at Rodney Parade in Newport on February 21st. Now that they have some points on the board, McCarthy is hopeful they are in a good position to push on for the remainder of the Six Nations – albeit there will be some tough challenges ahead for the Irish.
“A bonus point win is hard to get wherever you go. Five points on the table now, we just work on from here. There’s a lot of things to work on for next week now. We’ll go back and train hard next week, and the week after it we’re into Wales away then. Which will be another tough game,” McCarthy added.
Scorers - Scotland: F Watson, J Roberts, H Patterson try each. Ireland: C Molony 3 tries, B Corrigan, O Minogue try each, D Green 4 cons.
SCOTLAND: J Brown; N Moncrieff, J Ventisei, K Yule, F Watson; M Urwin, N Cowan; O McKenna, J Roberts, O Blyth-Lafferty; C Moss, D Halkon; C Lindsay, B Allen, R Logan. Replacements: S Stephen for Allen, J Shearer for McKenna, B Godsell for Moss, H Patterson for Cowan (all ht); O Duncan for Lindsay (59); J Stewart for Blyth-Lafferty (66); R Wolfenden for Urwin (71); C Waugh for Moncrieff (74).
IRELAND: D Green; C Molony, G O’Leary Kareem, C Fahy, C Mangan; S Wisniewski, C Logan; B Bohan, H Walker, A Mullan; M Ronan, B Corrigan; M Foy, B Power, E McCarthy. Replacements: T McAllister for Mullan (ht); C Magee for Walker (53); O Minogue for Power (59); W Wootton for Logan (61); D Hicks for Wisniewski (64); D Walsh for Ronan (65); E Smyth for O’Leary Kareem, (66); P Moore for Bohan (68).
Referee: T Bertazza (Argentina).
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