THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS
Scots score ten tries to secure first 'A' win over Irish in a decade

ALAN LORIMER AT MCDIARMID PARK
Scotland A 67

Ireland A 7
SCOTLAND achieved a record win over Ireland – their first in this fixture since 1999 – in last night' s A international at McDiarmid Park in Perth with a ten try haul that left the visitors gutted.

"We played with ambition and that's what really pleased me" said coach Andy Robinson. "All players from 1 to 22 put their hands up" he added.

Scotland could scarcely have made a better as Alan MacDonald opened up the Ireland defence before Phil Godman used the recycled ball to race through for a try under the posts, leaving the Scotland stand-off with an easy conversion.

The home side having been let off the hook returned to the attack and again it was the mobile MacDonald who was a key player, the flanker delivering a perfect pass for his Edinburgh team mate Dougie Hall to score in the corner.

Scotland did not have long to wait for their next points. Godman's penalty kick to the corner gave the Scots an attacking line-out from which the forwards mauled effectively before MacDonald exploded off the side to score a simple try converted by Godman.

There was further despair for Ireland as Roland Reid latched on to a dropped pass before racing down the left touchline and then kicking ahead. The ball bounced perfectly for the supporting Rory Lawson to give the scrum half an easy score.

Luck continued to be against the Irish at the conversion attempt as Godman's kick bounced off the cross-bar into the in-goal area to for a two point addition and a 26-0 lead for Scotland with 24 minutes played.

Ireland came close to opening their account when Isaac Boss launched an attack from a tap penalty but a poor kick by Niall Ronan ended the move. But a minute later the visitors engineered a two-on-one attack that ended with Munster wing Ian Dowling touching down under the posts and O'Conner converting.

Any hopes that this might trigger an Irish fightback, however, was crushed when Ronan was sent to the sin-bin for preventing fair release, and from the subsequent penalty Godman kicked three points for a 29-7 interval lead.

It was same again at the start of the second half as Scotland struck quickly with a break by Ben Cairns and the finish by Calum MacRae, Godman again converting. Ireland had chances but Ryan Caldwell and Daniel Riordan were thwarted by fine cover tackles from the Scots.

Then when Ireland suffered a second sin-binning – replacement prop Mike Ross being shown the yellow card – Scotland struck again with a try from a driven line-out by prop Alasdair Dickinson.

Another try quickly followed, Morrison breaking through the middle to clear the way for Evans to score in the corner

Evans quickly made it a brace with the Scots eighth try converted by Godman and then when Cairns took a well judged pass from replacement scrum Mark McMillan to touch down and replacement stand-off Gordon Ross added the conversion it was 60 points on the board for Scotland . Scotland rounded off a fine performance with a try by replacement prop Craig Smith again converted by Ross for a 67-7 win.

Scorers: Scotland A: Tries: Godman, Hall, MacDonald, R Lawson, MacRae, Evans (2), Cairns, Dickinson, Smith. Cons: Godman (5) Ross (2). Pens: Godman. Ireland A: Tries: Dowling. Cons: O'Conner.

Scotland A: C MacRae (Edinburgh); S Danielli (Ulster), B Cairns (Edinburgh), G Morrison (Glasgow Warriors), R Reid (Edinburgh); P Godman (Edinburgh), RLawson (Gloucester) captain; A Dickinson (Gloucester), D Hall (Glasgow Warriors), M Low (Glasgow Warriors), C Hamilton (Edinburgh), A Kellock (Glasgow Warriors), M Rennie (Bourgoin), A MacDonald (Edinburgh), J Beattie (Glasgow Warriors) Subs used S Lawson (Sale Sharks), C Smith (Edinburgh), D Turner (Glasgow Warriors), J Eddie (Glasgow Warriors), M McMillan (Wasps), G Ross (Saracens), M Evans (Glasgow Warriors)

Ireland A: D Riordan (Connacht); I Dowling (Munster), K Lewis (Munster), G Duffy (Connacht), G Brown (Leinster); N O'Connor (Ulster), I Boss (Ulster) (captain); D Hurley (Munster), F Sheahan (Munster), D Fitzpatrick (Ulster), T Hogan (Leinster), R Caldwell (Ulster), S Keogh (Leinster), N Ronan (Munster), S Ferris (Ulster) Subs used A Flavin (Connacht), M Ross (Harlequins), D Ryan (Munster), D Pollock (Ulster), C Keane (Leinster), ADunne (Connacht), K Earls (Munster)

Referee: A Small (England).

This article was originally posted on 23-Feb-2008, 08:37 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 23-Feb-2008, 08:41.