Ireland 45
Scotland 12
IRELAND CRUSHED SCOTLAND by 33 points to all but ensure third place in the 2016 RBS Women’s Six nations championship.
Allison Miller grabbed a hat-trick of tries, Ireland running in eight in total, even allowing Niamh Briggs to convert just one conversion without troubling the hosts dominance.
Just five minutes were on the clock when Miller opened the scoring for the hosts, all starting with Ciara Cooney winning the line-out too easily.
The Irish maul made the line and a neat inside pass from Nora Stapleton found Miller who bounced through the tackles to land the try.
Briggs added an easy conversion and four minutes later was pivotal to Ireland’s second try.
Briggs nearly fumbled Sene Naoupu’s fast ball but the Waterford woman’s composure saw her hand off to Liz Burke who found the corner.
The captain failed to convert but it mattered little as Ciara Griffin landed the hosts’ third try with just 14 minutes on the clock.
Briggs again handed off the final pass, this time to Griffin, as Ireland went down the right hand side again.
Tom Tierney’s side extended their advantage with a penalty after the visitors were penalised at the scrum but they were to open their account from the restart.
Scotland opted to go short with the kick-off and it paid dividends as Jenny Maxwell weaved into space and dotted down with hooker Lana Skeldon adding the extras.
Ireland searched for a fifth try before half-time, though were nearly undone when Lisa Thomson tore away only for Miller to cover back and complete the try-saving tackle.
After the break, Miller grabbed her second try of the day after a terrible attempted tackle by Scotland’s Sarah Law.
It was really just a matter of how many points Ireland would rack up in the second-half as Miller made it a hat-trick on 63 minutes as the home side worked it across the field.
Sophie Spence barged over to land Ireland’s eighth try with five minutes remaining, referee Trumbull using her touch judge to confirm the grounding.
Scotland rounded off the scoring in the final minute as Rhona Lloyd dotted down but it was an utterly dominant win for Ireland to round off the championship.
Ireland: Briggs, Burke, McLaughlin, Naoupu, Miller (Donnelly 71), Stapleton (Flood64), Muldoon (Healy 51), O’Reilly (Hayes 71), Grattage (Moloney 51), Egan (Reidy 71), Anthony (Fitzsimons 58), Cooney, Griffin, Molloy, Fitzpatrick (Spence 58)
Scotland: Rollie, Gaffney (Balmer), Thomson, Martin, Lloyd, Law (Nelson 55), Maxwell, Lockhart (Quick 77), Skeldon (Harris), Smith (Robertson), Wassell (Sim 77), McCormack, Forsyth (Stodter 77), Dunbar (Sinclair), Knokel.
Referee: Sherry Trumbull (Canada).
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