UNDER-20 SIX NATIONS:Scotland 35 Ireland 23: THE IRELAND women's team booked automatic qualification for next year's World Cup with a dominant performance against their Scottish counterparts in last night's RBS Six Nations clash in Edinburgh.
Ireland opened the scoring through the boot of Niamh Briggs – the full back stroking over a close range penalty after 22 minutes.
There was no respite for the Scottish defence and when they were adjudged to have killed the ball in the shadow of their own posts with half an hour gone and Briggs repeated the dose.
Ireland continued to dominate and managed to stretch away just before the break when Briggs raced on to a pass from Shannon Houston and powered over to send the visitors in at the break 11-0 ahead. Steven Hennessy’s players wasted no time in underlining their superiority, grabbing a second try within two minutes of the restart when Tania Rosser collected at a scrum 30 metres out and raced in without a defender laying a hand on her. Briggs added the conversion.
Ireland were guilty of easing off during the third quarter but they regained their focus to finish with a flourish and Lynne Cantwell completed the victory with a third try.
SCOTLAND: L Millard; C D'Silva, L Steven, E Kerr, V Blakebrough; T Griffith (S Newton 52), L Dalgliesh (S Newton 52); H Lockhart, S Walker, B Dickens (E Beattie 65), L Moffat (J Lyth 65), L Blyth, L Reid, R Slaven (N McLeod 76), S Brown (K Holdsworth 74).
IRELAND:N Briggs; J Feighery, L Cantwell, S Houston (H Brosnan 74), A Davis (L Beamish 74); J O'Sullivan (L Nicholl 74), T Rosser (J Limbert 74); F Coghlan, Y Nolan, G Bourke, C Mahon (K O'Loughlin 54), O Brennan, L Austin (D Clarke 47), S Ryan, J Neville (L Day 68).
Referee:B Fitsmaurice (RFU).
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