Ireland U20 trounce Samoa U20 by 52-26 in ninth place play-off

Ireland U20 52-26 Samoa U20, Avchala Stadium
Scorecard

Ireland ran a eight try riot as they went on to thrash Samoa by 52-26 in their U20 Championship ninth place semi-final at Avchala Stadium on Tuesday.

Ireland will now lock horns with Georgia at Mikheil Meskhi Stadium on Sunday to decide on the ninth place while Samoa will play Argentina at Avchala Stadium for the 11th place play-off.

Ronan Kelleher (4'), Peter Cooper (10'), Fineen Wycherley (20') and Oisin Dowling (38') were the try scorers in the first half for Ireland while fly-half Conor Dean added the extras on three occasions to take them to 26 points.

Theodore Solipo was the only point scorer for Samoa in the first half when he crossed over in the 32nd minute and moments later their scrum half Howard Tagoai was sin-binned, further denting their chances.

Cavin Nash (41') scored an early try in the second half to stretch Ireland's lead to 26 points but Samoa gathered some momentum after a sin-bin to Dowling that came in the 54th minute. Even though Samoa managed to score three tries in the final 22 minutes through, Setu Enoka, Pupi Ah See and Afioga Ielemia, their efforts were negated by tries from Kelleher, Ciaran Frawley and Caelan Dorris as Ireland completed a 26 point victory.