LONDON – Ireland have held off an impressive Scottish side 28-22 in their second World Cup warm-up match in Dublin on Saturday with an experimental Scottish side playing one of their best matches in recent history.
While the Irish side did enough to overcome the determined Scots with two tries in the final 15 minutes to seal victory, the match was all about the visitors as they endeavoured to fulfill coach Vern Cotter’s master plan of throwing the ball wide and playing high tempo rugby.
The visitors took some time to get into their work as the first quarter of the game was underlined by a good looking Ireland side who took the ball strongly into combat. Tries to Henry, Cronin, Zebo and Fitzgerald for the men in green was enough to undo the visitors who looked to match the Irish all the way, a feat that they proved capable of in spades. Despite the win, Ireland coach Joe Schmidt will be largely unimpressed as to how his team dropped in intensity after the first 20 minutes as well as became sloppier as the match wound on.
As for the visitors, this was the first time Scotland had showed the capabilities of being able to challenge one of the big boys in the past 18 months with tries to Cowan, Pyrgos and Horne. Cotter will be extremely pleased that a number of fringe players like David Denton and Greig Tonks furthering their cases for World Cup selection.
The match and the way in which the Scots stuck with Ireland will give them a lot of confidence heading into their final three World Cup warm-up matches as well as the Rugby World Cup itself where they have a tough pool including South Africa, Samoa and Japan.