Contrast in fortunes for Ireland and Scotland U21s

AS the Irish Under 21s headed home after their World Cup heroics, battered and bruised but with silver medals in the bag, Scotland were in the midst of turmoil.

Even though Ireland were disappointed with their final display against champions New Zealand in Glasgow, their contribution to the tournament met with all round praise.

Scotland had to settle for 10th place after losing to Italy. The result, whilst not unexpected, prompted a furious reaction from forwards coach Iain Paxton, the former Scottish and Lions number eight.

Paxton turns his back on Scottish rugby next week when he takes up a coaching position in Wellington and left the Scottish Rugby Union with plenty of food for thought with his match comments.

“Some of these boys have a sporting mentality three or four years younger than 21. They seem incapable of taking on board the information given to them and what is expected of them on the field of play.

“A lot of the players are well ahead of themselves in terms of where they think they are. They should take a long, hard look at themselves and at what they’re producing. Teams like Italy are coming through with a hunger and desire. Most of our players don’t have that.”

He bemoaned the lack of competition for young players in Scotland and their lack of respect for the game.

“They must grow up but to do so, competition has to be provided for them. It’s impossible to direct them when they are ill-prepared.”

Paxton expressed doubts about Scotland’s ability to show any type of reasonable improvement at senior level because of the lack of talent coming through.

“The Under 21s are the future for any country. It doesn’t look good from Scotland’s perspective based on the performance in this tournament.

“Most of the guys in the squad are moving on and individuals will have to show serious improvement if they are to progress into the senior ranks. I’d worry about Scotland’s immediate future in the Six Nations.”

Contrast that to Ireland, who blazed a successful trail through the competition with wins over Tonga, Argentina, France and Australia before coming to a shuddering halt against New Zealand.

Almost certainly more will be heard of players such as Andrew Finn, Richard Lane, John Hearty, Glen Telford, Tommy Bowe, Gareth Steenson, Tomas O’Leary, Denis Fogarty, David Gannon, Shane and Brendan O’Connor, Jamie Heaslip and David O’Brien.

Unlike Scotland, the Irish management were fulsome in praise of the effort. Team manager Dave Haslett expressed disappointment at the result, noting: “We did not want to finish second best and I don’t like the idea of being gallant losers. The good thing is the players have taken that on board as well. They know they can look back and say they did more than what was expected of them, but I don’t think they will.

“That’s a good attitude and I think, if they had another game against New Zealand, they would have learned from this match. Our problem was that we didn’t have enough possession in the first-half. When we did get the ball, we looked dangerous and got a couple of good scores but unfortunately there was too much of a gap in the scores.

“I’m proud of the effort and the good thing is several players have put their names up in lights for the future.

“That’s the most important thing in the overall future of Irish rugby.”