Scotland 10 - 6 Ireland
The game was seen as an experimental game to Ireland fielding a side with new cap Mike McCarthy starting and a new look midfield partnership with Paddy Wallace and Fergus McFadden starting in midfield for Ireland. For Scotland Ross Rennie got a first start for Scotland and was hoping to prove his worth to Andy Robinson for a Rugby World Cup team spot.
The game was delayed 15 minutes due to the amount of tickets being bought surprised organisers so the game had to be delayed, good for the rugby world showing the excitement for the nation's fans wanting to attend Rugby World Cup warm up games.
First Half
Scotland started the better of teams in the first 20 minutes with great play from Nikki Walker and Richie Gray, but the game was scrappy at times with the forwards picking and driving alot. The Scotland backs looked like they were using the plays Gregor Townsend had taught them with Ruaridh Jackson trying to use everything he had been taught which went well sometimes and sometimes bombed.
Kudos for Scotland trying to light the game up with these attacks, the centre partnership of Ansbro and Morrison were trying to break the Irish defence in the first 40 but this failed with great defence from Ireland with their new defence form of trying to hold the attacker up. Nikki Walker went off with an injury with the newly capped Jack Cuthbert coming on to replace the giant winger who has impressed. This will be disappointing for Nikki who had hoped to make a great impression in which he did.
The half just continued with the majority of the breaks from Scotland with an odd shine from Ireland including Trimble's dangerous running and Fitzgerald pinning Scotland back with neat grubber kicks. The first half ended with Jonathan Sexton converting a penalty to make it 3-0 to Ireland.
Second Half
The second half started like the first did again with Scotland pressure and stiff Irish defence, handling errors became more frequent for Scotland with potential attacks being shut out due to a last minute slip of the hand allowing Ireland to relax. It didn't go all of Scotland's way with again more grubber kicks from Luke Fitzgerald noticeably down the wing giving Scotland a scare but nothing came off them.
Chris Patterson pinged a penalty back for Scotland but Sexton replied with another penalty to make it Scotland 3 “ 6 Ireland. With a record of Chris Patterson's most fans think they have misheard when they hear Chris Patterson has missed a penalty and that was the cause in this game with him missing. The game wore on and still was scrappy with alot of picking and driving, Scotland's line outs were still not performing but their scrum was proving to be troublesome for the Irish.
With Ireland ruling the line outs a line out came which was collected brilliantly from Alistair Kellock with the Scots sweeping the passes from the left hand side to the right handside where it found Joe Ansbro who went down the wing and at the last moment with an approaching Andrew Trimble drifted in the left to avoid the momentum of Trimble to score. A great play from the Scots and pick from the line out after a poor day with it. Ruaridh Jackson converted to make it Scotland 10 “ 6 Ireland.
The final few minutes just saw Scotland pick and drive to keep possession of the ball to allow them to easily kick the ball out to win the game.
Final Score “ Scotland 10 “ 6 Ireland
Man of the Match “ Richie Gray
Thoughts “ Scotland will have to work on their line out as it was terrible even though they benefited from it at the end to score the try. Scrum was good and Ireland felt the impact of Geoff Cross who also had a very good game.
Ireland's defence was superb with them holding the player high in the tackle, attack wise Kearney, Fitzgerald and Trimble looked good but they weren't sharp enough today to penetrate the Scottish defence.
