Everitt comes to the rescue for A team

Scotland A 22 Ireland A 22

Otherwise, it was not a fruitful outing for the Tipperary-born London Irish man whose tactical kicking left much to be desired. In truth, though, quite a few other Australian hopefuls failed to enhance their reputations with Jeremy Staunton failing to reproduce his outstanding recent form for Munster and even suffering the indignity of being sin binned for a deliberate knock-on ten minutes before the interval.

There were also a few positives with Eric Miller showing his intent with a powerhouse display at number eight and Kieron Dawson also showing his pace and class in a good Irish backrow. Donnacha O'Callaghan must also have done his World Cup ambitions a lot of good with an aggressive and constructive eighty minutes while Rob Henderson's strength and support instincts helped the big centre to a couple of tries. John Kelly showed his class early on with a fine run but was starved for opportunities subsequently.

"It was typical first game", commented Irish coach Matt Williams. "We came together on Tuesday, we got the team on Wednesday and I felt if we could survive the first half that we would get better in the second, because we needed some time. But our kicking game in the first half was something to behold, just staggeringly bad on all fronts. I thought we kicked the ball too often in the second half for we looked pretty good when we ran the ball".

In bemoaning his limited opportunity to prepare the Irish side, Williams overlooked the fact that his Scottish counterpart Hugh Williams was operating under similar restrictions and this being the case with the other countries as well, is just another reason why the A international series is coming under increasing pressure since Wales opted out earlier in the season.

Ireland were always struggling in the opening half after which the Scots led 12-5 with two tries by Jason White, one converted by Duncan Hodge, against a Rob Henderson try. It looked as if Ireland successfully completed their revival when James Topping and Henderson again went in for tries with a now more comfortable Everitt converting both.

But the Scots came again, James McLaren got in for a try and Hodge converted before putting his side back in front with a penalty. Ireland's blushes, however, were spared by Everitt's late, late equaliser which came at the end of a brilliant counter attack from deep in their own 22 and in which the speedy Dawson played a major role.

IRELAND J. Staunton (Munster); J. Topping (Ulster), G. Darcy (Leinster), R. Henderson (Munster), J. Kelly (Munster); B. Everitt (London Irish), N. Doak (Ulster); J. Fitzpatrick (Ulster), P. Shields (Ulster), S. Best (Ulster), D. O'Callaghan (Munster), M. O'Driscoll (Munster), S. Easterby (Llanelli), K. Dawson (London Irish), E. Miller (Leinster). Replacements, D. Quinlan (Leinster) for Topping 66; P. Bracken (Connacht) for Best 69; B. Casey (London Irish) for O'Driscoll 70; A. McCullen (Leinster) for Easterby 70; B. O'Meara (Leinster) for Doak 76.

SCOTLAND S. Moffat (Glasgow); S. Webster (Edinburgh), J. McLaren (Begles-Bordeaux), A. Henderson (Glasgow), C. Joiner (Edinburgh); D. Hodge (Edinburgh) capt., G. Beveridge (Glasgow); A. Jacobsen (Edinburgh), R. Russell (Saracens), C. Smith (Edinburgh), J. White (Glasgow), I. Fullerton (Sale), A. Rennick (Borders), J. Petrie (Glasgow), A. Wilson (Glasgow). Replacements, D. Lee (Edinburgh) for McLaren 62.

Referee C. Berdos (France).