Irish U21 give McCall perfect send-off

Ireland Under-21 33 Scotland Under-21 9

Ireland’s Under-21s gave recently-appointed Ulster coach Mark McCall the ideal Six Nations send off as his side claimed a bumper five-try win over a poor Scotland side in Dublin.

With third place in the championship already secured, the men in green ran riot in the first half, touching down four times with the Scots’ sole reply coming from the boot of Stirling’s Brian Archibald.

A fourth loss of the season for the visitors looked certain in the early stages as the Irish ran in three of their tries inside the first half hour.

Skipper David Gannon, playing on his club Blackrock’s home pitch, began the rout on eight minutes following a close-range set-piece maul.

Flanker Brendan O’Connor muscled over nine minutes later for his first of the campaign, and with the Scottish pack faltering, right wing Richard Lane sprinted over for another in the corner.

Lane’s fourth try in successive games further galvanised the Irish effort, and soon after Stephen Jones managed a 28-metre reply for the Scots, left wing Tommy Bowe went over by the posts.

Queen’s out-half Gareth Steenson had added the extras to Ireland’s first, third and fourth tries to take his championship tally to 43 points, and he converted a second try for man-of-the-match O’Connor on 61 minutes.

The visitors cut the gap with a further brace of penalties from Archibald, but with out-half Jones sinbinned, their intensity fell off, as Ireland claimed their third win of the campaign.