Revington casts eye as Jermyn double helps Ireland to victory

NEW Irish coach Paul Revington saw his new charges rack up a 3-1 victory against an ill-disciplined Scotland last night at Banbridge, but what he can draw from the game is hard to judge.

Ireland eased home in the second half as the Scots imploded, going down to nine men. Two goals during that time and three in total from set pieces put a gloss on a win, after a sketchy first half performance.

The watching Revington, who officially takes over in January, saw an over-eager Ireland before the break, creating half-chances but often over-elaborating when the simpler options would have yielded greater dividends.

Scotland, meanwhile, had the best of the chances, and Kenny Bain got the breakthrough in the 30th minute, latching on to Iain Scholefield’s hopeful 60-metre ball down the left channel, before taking advantage of a shocking defensive mix-up to fire a reverse past David Harte unopposed.

By contrast, the second half produced a more cohesive performance. John Jermyn made it level three minutes after the turnaround with a drag-flick, as all the flicks and turns that came to nought before the break were now finding green sticks.

The game’s major talking point came in the 57th minute when last defender William Marshall cleaned out Phelie Maguire. Marshall was sent to the bin, followed 20 seconds later by Scottish captain Niall Stott whose protests also led to a 10-minute rest.

Jermyn netted the resultant stroke, and within three minutes Timmy Cockram stretched the lead out to 3-1 from another penalty corner.

On the women’s side, an inexperienced Irish XI started well in their Scottish test but eventually fell 3-1. Jenny McDonough opened the scoring just three minutes in, fed beautifully by Ulster Elks’ Emma Clarke.

But Scotland controlled the play from then on with Linda Clement levelling matters in the 10th minute. Late call-up Julie Bryce made it 2-1 before half-time, before Louise Munn struck the clincher with 15 minutes to go.

Meanwhile, Munster pulled off a stunning win 2-1 over favourites Leinster in an enthralling first series of matches at the U-18 Interpros at Shaw’s Bridge in Belfast yesterday.

Having lost 2-0 to Ulster — for whom lethal Banbridge starlet Stephen Dowds netted twice — Stephen Jackson’s side went into the game with the defending champions knowing defeat would likely end their interest in the competition. Things weren’t looking good when Fingal’s Andrew Shekleton gave Leinster the lead, but Bandon Grammar student Malcolm Coombes’ deflection hauled Munster level.

They looked to have missed a golden opportunity to take the lead when St Andrew’s keeper Stephen West did well to save Karl Lynch’s penalty stroke, but Bandon’s Fionn O’Leary ensured it didn’t matter as he bagged the winner in the dying minutes.

Meanwhile, the Munster U-16s also had a result to savour, as they soaked up pressure from Ulster before Bandon’s Ben Scott hit the only goal of the game to record a notable 1-0 win.

However, the fatigue from that effort told later on against a physically superior Leinster side, for whom five players got on the scoresheet in a 5-0 win.