Irish Triple Crown hopes dashed

Ireland coach Adam Griggs admitted his side were well below their best after Scotland secured a surprise victory in yesterday’s Women’s Six Nations Championship at Donnybrook.

Women’s Six Nations

Ireland 12

Scotland 15

Donnybrook

The defeat ends Ireland’s Triple Crown hopes ahead of a final-round meeting with England.

Griggs said: “I don’t think we were in the game. Scotland started off a lot better than we did and we were lucky to be down only 3-0 at half-time.

We really didn’t fire a shot in that first half. We weren’t starting off as well as we would’ve liked and I don’t think we really played rugby until the 76th minute, where we started to put some phases together.

Scotland dominated possession in the opening quarter and broke the deadlock with a routine Helen Nelson penalty in the seventh minute.

Katie Fitzhenry’s deliberate knock-on presented Nelson with an ideal opportunity to double Scotland’s lead, but her 22nd-minute effort was wide.

Two minutes into the second half, Nelson held off challenges from Lindsay Peat and Megan Williams to touch down in the left corner.

That score sparked Ireland to life. Following excellent work off a 5m scrum, a penalty try (and automatic conversion) made it 8-7.

Disaster struck just past the hour mark when Scotland overcame the absence of the sin-binned Megan Kennedy to cross for a second try.

Ciara Griffin’s attempted pass to Sene Naoupu off the base of a Scotland set-piece was intercepted by full-back Chloe Rollie who dotted down after sprinting the length of the field.

Although they kept themselves in contention with Paula Fitzpatrick’s unconverted finish to the right of the Scottish posts, Ireland couldn’t produce a third try.

Scorers for Ireland:

Penalty try and con, P Fitzpatrick try.

Scorers for Scotland:

H Nelson try, pen, C Rollie try, L Skeldon con.

IRELAND:

K Flood; M Williams, K Fitzhenry, S Naoupu, H Tyrrell; N Briggs, A Hughes; L Peat, C Moloney, L Lyons, A McDermott, O Fitzsimons, C Griffin, C Molloy, P Fitzpatrick.

Replacements:

A Baxter for Fitzsimons (45), F Reidy for Lyons (63), N Cronin for Hughes (66), M Claffey for Briggs (68), L Feely for Peat (74).

SCOTLAND:

C Rollie; L Musgrove, L Thomson, H Nelson, H Smith; L Martin, S Law; S McMillan, L Skeldon, M Kennedy, E Wassell, D McCormack, S Bonar, R Malcolm, J Konkel.

Replacements:

L McMillan for Bonar, J Maxwell for Law (both h-t), L Smith for McMillan (53), J Rettie for Kennedy (68), L Harris for Nelson (70), S Cattigan for Malcolm (74).

Referee:

I Tempest (England).