RUGBY:IRELAND WILL face South Africa for the second time in nine days on Wednesday knowing that they will at least equal their best ever finish in the Under-20 Junior World Championship.
The eighth place achieved two seasons ago in Japan is Ireland’s highest placing in the four years since this competition was formed.
Wales and Fiji will meet in the other fifth place semi-final, so Ireland, if they fail to beat a Baby Boks side who turned them over 42-26 in midweek, would fancy their chances of beating them.
That would represent progress for Mike Ruddock’s side and a much better seeding for next year’s tournament in South Africa after last year’s ninth place saw them pooled with South Africa and England this time round.
A moment of magic from centre Brendan Macken turned this game.
Ireland were hanging on to a 9-6 lead with seven minutes remaining and looking vulnerable.Both defences had been on top but then Macken seized the moment with a jinking run at blistering pace to send Andrew Conway clear down the right and in for the clinching score.
Conway’s try was his fourth of the tournament and leaves him just one off All-Back Zac Guildford’s record of 10 in the Championship. Paddy Jackson’s conversion saw Ireland pull 10 points ahead and they turned the screw with two more converted tries in the next five minutes.
Ruddock praised the effort of his charges, who were playing their third game in eight days.
“I think our game plan worked really well. We were totally in control. We knew we could wear them down with our scrummaging so I asked the boys to look at a lot of double drives in the scrum. Their backrow like to get up and tackle so we wanted to keep them honest, keep them down to make some room for our backs by scrummaging really hard.
“We also thought we could get a couple of penalties from it as well and just build our lead in an old- fashioned way. I am a big fan of playing open rugby but sometimes you have just got to win with a game plan to suit the opposition and we picked the game plan with our driving maul and our driving scrum, took the legs out of Scotland and allowed our backs eventually to find room,” he said.
Ruddock was particularly pleased with the way Ireland defended and feels a benchmark has been set for the next clash with the Baby Boks.
“I though our defence, in particular, improved against a very tough, industrious Scotland team who just wouldn’t give up.
“We kept the pressure on them with our defensive play and we controlled the game with our territorial game and we controlled the game up front with our scrum and our lineout drives. So total control in this one, even though it was a bit closer than I wanted it to be. Sometimes you have got to win it a little bit uglier and wait for the sexy rugby to come, and it came towards the end,” added Ruddock.
Ireland led 6-3 at the break and by 9-6 late on as Jackson and Duncan Weir traded penalties.
Macken turned the game in Ireland’s favour with his superb break for Conway to maintain his record of scoring a try in every game in this year’s tournament.
Jackson added the points to put 10 between them and Ireland then cut loose to seal the win with a finishing flourish.
Ian Henderson set up Luke Marshall with a superb break down the left and this time James McKinney converted, having just come on.
And they finished in style, with replacements David Doyle and Daniel Qualter combining to send Niall Annett over.
Scotland pulled back a consolation score when Danny Gilmour finished a good move down the left but it was Ireland who were celebrating at the end as they prepare for revenge when they face a Baby Boks side on Wednesday in Padua.
IRELAND: T O'Halloran (Galwegians); A Conway (Blackrock), B Macken (Blackrock), L Marshall (Ballymena), A Boyle (UCD); P Jackson (Dungannon), K Marmion (University of Wales Institute Cardiff); J Tracy (UCD), N Annett (Belfast Harlequins), T Furlong (Clontarf); M Kearney (Clontarf), I Henderson (Queens University); E McKeon (Galwegians), D Gallagher (Dublin University), J Murphy (Lansdowne) Replacements: C Gilroy (Dungannon) for O'Halloran (65 mins), D Qualter (Buccaneers) for Kearney, D Doyle (UCD) for Gallagher (both 70 mins), P Du Toit (UCD) for Marmion (74 mins) J McKinney (Queens University) for Jackon,76 mins, C Carey (Dungannon) for Furlong, S Buckley (Garryowen) for Murphy (both 77 mins).
SCOTLAND:G Bryce; S Atkin, M Bennett, D Gilmour, K Gossman; D Weir, S Kennedy; A Allan, D Cherry, C Phillips; M Todd, R McAlpine; M Eadie, H Watson, J Tyas. Replacements: R Ferguson for Cherry (42 mins), J Swanson for McAlpine, G Hunter for Phillips, both 53 mins, R Hislop for Allan, J Stevenson for Gossman (both 63 mins), S Edwards for Weir (76 mins).
Referee:G Garne (England).
