U20s 6N: Scotland v Ireland: catastrophic start leaves hosts with too much of a mountain to climb

Yesterday at 06:28 PM

Scotland 15

Ireland 33

ALAN LORIMER @ Hive Stadium

SCOTLAND’S long run of defeats against Ireland which stretches back a decade continued as Kenny Murray’s side again finished solver medallists to the men in green in the the second round of the Six Nations under-20 championship. 

The only consolation for Scotland was winning the second half 10-7, but that has to be seen against a miserable opening quarter when the young Scots conceded four tries to an Irish side that played one-pass rugby to perfection, creating holes in the home defence and looking dangerously likely to replicate the 82-7 scoreline of two years ago at Scotstoun. 

"You can’t give teams a start like that. It was a really poor start. Individual errors were costly." suggested Scotland under-20s Murray, who highlighted a flaw in the way his players defended in the early part of the game. "We came laterally off the line rather than square and they picked us off. That frustrated me. Then we just made errors and we turned the ball over a few times".

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"It could have been a really sore game. At one point, it was looking pretty bad, but I thought the boys showed a lot of heart to get back into the game," concluded Murray, whose charges now have two weeks before their next game against the current World Champions England.

If the nightmarish opening quarter is obliterated from the memory then Scotland's performance begins to look more than encouraging. Much of their second half performance was down to the impact of the bench and notably at scrum-half where Hawick’s Hector Patterson gave his side a massive lift with a real go-forward display that was rewarded with an individual try.

Patterson, after a long lay-off, is being nursed back into full match order, and after his showing against Ireland he looks to be ready to take his place in the starting XV for the next round of the Championship

There were strong contributions, too,  from Oliver Duncan, who replaced the equally impressive Christian Lindsay, and Seb Stephen, who although a front-row specialist did a useful job on the flank as a replacement for Billy Allen. 

But overall this was a display blighted by a rabbit-in-the-headlights display in the opening stages of the game and which perhaps highlights the need to expose Scotland under-20 players to higher level rugby than is currently on offer to them.

The clock had barely warmed up when Ireland struck with an early try by winger Charlie Molony, who dashed through a gap in midfield after a spell of one pass rugby by the powerful Irish forwards following the blueprint plan of Irish rugby originally laid down by Joe Schmidt. Dan Green converted from in front of the posts.

Man-of-the-match Molony then claimed his second try from a deft cross-kick by stand-off Sam Wisniewski after a siege on the Scotland line by the hard working pile-drivers up front, Green chalking up his second success off the tee, this time from close to the touchline, for a 14-0 lead.

The early rout continued with second-row Billy Corrigan smashing over from close range and Green again converting, before Molony completed his hat-trick and Ireland's bonus point try from overwhelming forward power and slick handling by the backs.

After being on the receiving end for the first quarter, Scotland finally put together a productive move, triggered by a strong carry by Reuben Logan and then a clever movement of the ball in the outside channels that ended with Fergus Watson diving over for an unconverted try.

Ireland looked to have increased their lead from a driven line-out only for the referee to spot an illegal detachment, but even so the visitors' 26-5 interval lead was a tad more than healthy.

Scotland's dynamic start to the second half suggested the half time talk had been effective, and when the forwards worked collectively, hooker Joe Robert's crossed from close-range.

The resurrection continued with abrasive forward play from the Scots and efficient movement of the ball that ended with Patterson dotting down, only for the referee to rule a no try after an earlier knock-on was identified.

Ireland celebrated by turning up the heat on the Scots and only dogged defence on their own line kept the visitors at bay. But eventually Ireland came away with points with a line-out try from replacement Oisin Minogue, who had been on the field for just ten seconds, Green kicking the extra points.

Having been denied a try earlier, Patterson got his just desserts with a try after skilfully hacking spillled Irish ball downfield, which despite late pressure by Ireland on the Scotland line proved to be the final points of the match.

Teams –

Scotland: J Brown; N Moncrieff (C Waugh 73), J Ventisei, K Yule, F Watson (N Moncrieff ); M Urwin (R Wolfenden 70), N Cowan (H Patterson 40); O McKenna (J Shearer 40), J Roberts, O Blyth-Lafferty (J Stewart 65), C Moss (B Godsell 40), D Halkon, C Lindsay (O Duncan 58), B Allen (S Stephen 40), R Logan.

Ireland: D Green; C Molony, G O'Leary Kareem (O Smyth 65), C Fahy, C Mangan; S Wisniewski (D Hicks 63), C Logan (W Wootton 60); B Bohan (P Moore 67), H Walker (C Magee 52), A Mullan (T McAllister40 ), M Ronan (D Walsh 64), B Corrigan,  M Foy, B Power (O Minogue 58) , É McCarthy

Referee: Tomaso Bertazza (UAR)

Scorers –

Scotland: Tries Watson, Roberts, Patterson.

Ireland: Tries Molony 3, Corrigan, Minogue; Cons: Green 4.

Scoring Sequence (Scotland first): 0-5; 0-7; 0-12; 0-14; 0-19; 0-21; 0-26; 5-26 (h-t) 10-26; 10-31; 10-33; 15-33.

Man-of-the-Match: Ireland's hat-trick hero Charlie Molony certainly looked the part in the first quarter when he rattled up his 15 points tally. But thereafter the swift winger had no further chance to extend his try total. From a Scottish perspective, Hector Patterson burnished his promotion credentials.

Talking point: Scotland came close to gaining a bonus point, and certainly by the end of the game proved to themselves that they can compete against strong teams like Ireland in both attack and defence. Hopefully this will give the young Scots greater self belief that they can  take into what will be a tough game against England at Newcastle in two weeks’ time and then against Wales four weeks hence. For both those games, the Scots could be boosted by the return of Freddy Douglas, who is, according to Kenny Murray, “ready to go”

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