Ireland U20s  47 

Scotland U20s  14

THE IRELAND U20S helped themselves to seven tries at Virgin Media Park in Cork this afternoon as Andrew Browne’s underage side replicated their senior counterparts by claiming a Six Nations Triple Crown with a convincing final round home victory over Scotland.

Already on the verge of backing up their earlier wins against England and Wales as a result of Duinn Maguire, Derry Moloney, Rob Carney and Ben Blaney crossing over in the first half, Johnny O’Sullivan, Christopher Barrett and Christian Foley also added scores on the resumption to propel Ireland towards a 33-point triumph.

This puts them level on 20 points with France for the time being and while they will need the defending champions to lose by more than 40 points in their bout with England this evening in order for them to secure an unlikely Championship victory, four wins from five games nonetheless represents a satisfactory campaign for the Ireland U20s.

A Scottish side that were aiming to avoid a bottom-place finish in this year’s U20 Six Nations found themselves within inches of a breakthrough try after opting for a ‘tap and go’ off a third-minute penalty, but the Irish defence dug deep to hold up their opponents over the line.

Ireland quickly gained an attacking foothold in the wake of this early scare and even though fly-half Tom Wood couldn’t find touch off an earlier penalty amidst tricky conditions in the Leeside venue, he managed to do so at the second time of asking in the eighth-minute. 

A fine fetch by South African-born flanker Josh Neill off the resulting line-out had Ireland on the front-foot and following a neat pass courtesy of Neill’s fellow back-row Blaney, hooker Duinn Maguire was on hand to crash over in the right-corner.

A superb touchline conversion from Wood perfectly supplemented this effort and now that they were up and running, there was a sense Ireland would continue to hunt for more scores 

While a Carney finish on 15 minutes was ruled out for an earlier forward pass from the aforementioned Blaney, Ireland doubled their lead just past the first-quarter mark when Moloney gathered Wood’s elaborate pass out wide to dot down in clinical fashion for a converted try.

Whereas Scotland were struggling in attack outside of those opening few moments, Ireland were making significant inroads at the opposite end of the pitch. Having had that earlier try chalked off, Carney finally added his name to the scoresheet after Ireland had moved the ball at pace off an attacking scrum. 

This had the home team within reach of a bonus point and this was secured with 37 minutes gone on the clock when the impressive scrum-half Christopher Barrett released Blaney for a run over the whitewash on the left-wing. A fourth successful conversion from Wood moved Ireland into a 28-0 buffer and this cushion remained intact after Scottish prop Jamie Stewart was held up at the very end of the opening period.

There might have been an expectation that the hosts would maintain their attacking momentum after the restart. Yet 28 minutes passed before the first score of the second half arrived and it took fresh impetus from the bench for Ireland to ultimately rediscover their groove.

Thanks to excellent approach work from his fellow replacement Charlie O’Shea, Johnny O’Sullivan raced through for his side’s fifth converted try of the contest on 68 minutes. 

This further deflated a Scotland side that had competed quite well up to that point in the second period, but they eventually opened their account when back-up hooker Jamie McAughtrie applied the finishing touches to a line-out maul with just nine minutes of normal time remaining.

Keith Wood embraces his son Tom post-game. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

Hamish McArthur supplied the extras to this score and he did likewise with a drop-goal effort in the wake of Henry Widdowson also touching down beyond the whitewash moments later.

The concession of two tries in the space of three minutes was something of a frustration for Ireland, but there was still enough time left in the action for them to round off their campaign in style.

Complimenting Barrett’s fifth try of the tournament via a delicate pass from the lively O’Sullivan, replacement prop Foley drove over off another set-piece move to complete the scoring in second half stoppage-time.

Ireland scorers:

Tries – Duinn Maguire, Derry Moloney, Rob Carney, Ben Blaney, Johnny O’Sullivan, Christopher Barrett, Christian Foley

Conversions – Tom Wood [6 from 7]

Scotland scorers:

Tries – James McAughtrie, Henry Widdowson

Conversions – Hamish McArthur [2 from 2]

IRELAND: Noah Byrne (Johnny O’Sullivan ’46); Derry Moloney, Rob Carney (Charlie O’Shea ’64), James O’Leary, Daniel Ryan; Tom Wood, Christopher Barrett; Max Doyle (Christian Foley ’62), Duinn Maguire (Lee Fitzpatrick ’49), Sami Bishti (Luke Murtagh ’62); Joe Finn, Donnacha McGuire (Dylan McNeice ’49); Josh Neill (James O’Dwyer ’72), Ben Blaney (Billy Hayes ’54), Diarmaid O’Connell.

SCOTLAND: Henry Widdowson; Nairn Moncrieff (Henry Armstrong ’27), Campbell Waugh, Harry Clark, Rory McHaffie; Jake Dalziel, Adam McKenzie (Hamish McArthur ’58); Oliver McKenna (Will Pearce ’56), Joe Roberts, Jamie Stewart (Jackson Rennie ’56); Alfie Blackett (Christian Lindsay half-time), Dan Halkon (Fin Ronnie ’58); Archie Appleby, Jack Utterson (Harvey Preston half-time), Rory Purvis (Jamie McAughtrie ’56).

Referee: David Vosalevu (Fiji).