The Scotsman reports

By ALAN LORIMER
at CALEDONIAN stadium
SCOTLAND suffered their third successive defeat in three rounds of the Six Nations under 20 Championship after losing to Ireland at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium in Inverness last night in a match that exposed the Scots' frailties in the set scrum that accounted for both Irish tries.
"The set scrum is an issue for us," admitted Scotland under 20 coach Peter Wright, adding: "Culturally, we don't work at scrummaging in Scotland as much as other countries do. Physically we don't have guys who can match our opponents.

"We have England in two weeks time and that will be a challenge. However, I thought we defended well last night but you can only defend for so long in a game. What disappointed me was that we gave away two soft tries in the first half."

Scotland, however, were guilty of too many dropped passes and poorly directed passes, in contrast to Ireland who, when on song, were much slicker with ball in hand.

The Scots forwards were combative, the pick of the pack being the Bath back row James Tyas, who carried ball well and who complemented his attacking game with good fringe defence.

It was Scotland who made the first threat with a charge-down of Patrick Jackson's attempted clearance kick from the Ireland 22m area, only for a knock-on to deny the Scots of an early score.

Ireland immediately righted matters by shoving Scotland backwards at their own scrum put-in to prelude a period of sustained attack that forced the Scots into two try-saving tackles in the left corner before the Irish forwards used their weight to create space for skipper Niall Annett to force his way over for an unconverted try.

Ireland showed good handling skills in a break out from defence that gave winger Tiernan O'Halloran a chance to stretch his legs, requiring Scotland's scramble defence to go into action. Ireland's more powerful scrum again showed to the fore as, once again, the Scots pack was driven backwards giving the visitors cheap possession. Ireland wasted little time in applying pressure with a slicing run from full back Michael Sherlock and support from flanker Aaron Connelly.

This article was originally posted on 26-Feb-2011, 07:43 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 26-Feb-2011, 07:44.