Ireland rally to earn draw

Ireland fought back from a two-goal deficit against Scotland in Dundee yesterday, snatching a 2-2 draw through an Arlene Thompson equaliser just seconds from the end, to give Riet Kuper an encouraging start as national coach.

Scotland, who are finalising their preparations for the World Cup in Utrecht at the end of the month, had the better of the opening stages, against an Irish side that has not played for eight months, and took the lead through Alison Grant in the 18th minute, when she turned home Sue Fraser's free hit.

Ireland, who lost defender Laura Brown with a suspected broken hand in the 25th minute, rallied towards the end of the first half, winning four penalty corners, and came close to equalising when Kim Mills' reverse stick shot was superbly saved by Tracey Robb.

Hermes goalkeeper Tara Browne produced a magnificent save from Rhona Simpson six minutes into the second half but less than a minute later she was powerless to prevent the British international from converting a Sue MacDonald cut-back from the baseline. By now Scotland were in complete control and could have twice stretched their lead through MacDonald but Ireland were again indebted to Browne who kept out shots by the prolific striker. An opportunist goal from Daphne Sixsmith in the 54th minute brought Ireland back into the game. The ball broke to the Hermes midfielder at the top of the circle and with little room to manoeuvre she struck a shot through a ruck of players.

Then, just 10 seconds from the end, Ireland won their first short corner of the second half, which Arlene Thompson fired past Robb to snatch a share of the honours. "We had a bit of luck, to be honest," said Kuper, who singled out midfielders Caitriona O'Kelly and Rachel Kohler and defenders Julie Stewart and Arlene Thompson as her most impressive players.

Ireland: T Browne, J Stewart, A Thompson, A Falvey, S O'Kelleher, M Logue (capt), L Brown, R Kohler, C McMahon, S Kelleher, K Mills. Subs: D Sixsmith, C Devine, T Conway, K O'Brien.

Scotland: T Robb, J Jack, S Fraser, P Roberston (capt), D Renilson, R Simpson, S Gilmour, L Burton, A Denholm, V Neil, A Grant. Subs: S MacDonald, C Corcoran, H Walker, F Pearson.

Germany beat Ireland 2-0 in the under-21 match in Belfast. It took the visitors 48 minutes to break down the Irish defence at Upper Malone, through Sonja Lehman, and they came close to conceding an equaliser but goalkeeper Jennifer Lutz denied Shauna Parkhill. The second German goal came two minutes from the end when Tina Bachmann converted a short-corner rebound.

Loreto goalkeeper Avril Copeland was the outstanding player for the Irish, producing three superb first-half saves.

Senior International (at Dundee) Scotland 2 (A Grant, R Simpson), Ireland 2 (D Sixsmith, A Thompson).

Under-21 International (in Belfast) Ireland 0, Germany 2 (S Lehman, T Bachmann).