Scotland u19 8 Ireland u19 15

Scotland finished in 10th place in the IRB u19 World Championship after losing their final match of the tournament at Kings Park in Durban to Ireland.

It was a match that had an end-of-championship feel to it as the two Celtic countries cancelled each other out. Scotland scored the only try of the match but disappointingly lost to an Ireland side that never looked liked crossing their line.

Ireland coach Pat Murray admitted : \"It was a match that could have gone either way. I have to say that Scotland played some excellent rugby but on the day we got our kicking game right\".

And how. Ireland had six shots at goal and converted five of these into points to sink Scotland, who were penalised repeatedly in the first half for offences at the contact area.

Yet despite the dampener of losing their final match Scotland will take positives away from this game, not least their ability to build phases and to move the ball cleverly. The Scots were certainly worth a try in the first half and should have scored when winger Cammy Johnston was put away only to be caught by the Ireland opensider Barry O\'Mahoney.

A penalty by centre Fergus McFadden and two by full back Rob Kearney gave Ireland a 9-0 half time lead but five minutes into the second half Scotland struck decisively running the ball from a penalty award before an astutely judged grubber kick by Jon Alston allowed hooker Sean Crombie to touch down for an unconverted try.

Scotland , who added a successful kick by James King , tried desperately to close the gap but were frustrated in their efforts as Kearney added two further penalties to seal the game for Ireland.


Scotland u19 Tane Jericevich (Aberdeen GSFP); Jon Alston (Dundee HSFP), David McCall (Stewart\'s-Melville College) , Chris Dunlop (Durham University), Cameron Johnston (Newcastle Falcons); James King (The Borders), Ali Miller (GHA); Kyle Traynor (Edinburgh Academicals) CAPTAIN, Sean Crombie (Kirkcaldy), Alan Dymock (High School of Dundee), Allan Kelly (Hillhead/Jordanhill) , Greg Scott (Boroughmuir), Calum Forrester (GHA), John Barclay (GHA), Ross Rennie (Stewart\'s-Melville FP). Replacements used Donald Malcolm (GHA), Innes Brown (Kirkcaldy), Oliver Tatham (Rotherham), Greg Cottrell (Hawick

This article was originally posted on 18-Apr-2005, 14:52 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 18-Apr-2005, 14:53.