Early finish as Emerging Irish team batter Russia in Nations Cup opener

By Barry Coughlan in Bucharest

Emerging Ireland 66 Russia 0

The game lasted only 65 minutes, with a thunderstorm intervening to put an end to a one-sided match in this IRB Nations Cup in Bucharest yesterday afternoon.

Irish head coach Joe Schmidt will look at the video later but won’t learn much other than with ball in hand he has a couple of gems, amongst them Andrew Conway and Craig Gilroy.

Between them, the wingers notched five of Ireland’s ten tries as they cruised to an effortless win in a match that was abandoned by agreement from both sides by Welsh referee Ian Davies.

Ian Keatley set the scoring ball rolling for Ireland after just three minutes with a try and the scores came quickly despite Russia’s gritty display up front.

Conway scored six minutes in and Niall Annett, Conway, Gilroy, Conway again, Robin Copeland and Tommy O’Donnell all crossed for scores with out half Keatley kicking six conversions to secure an unassailable 52-0 half-time lead.

The Irish continued to control matters for the remaining minutes, scoring tries from Marshall and Gilroy, while replacement out half JJ Hanrahan kicked the two conversions before referee Davies called a halt to matters in the interest of player safety.

Ireland take the points on the basis of their huge lead margin and the fact that the teams had played more than 40 minutes.

Emerging Ireland: J Murphy (Munster), C Gilroy (Ulster), S McCloskey (Ulster), E Griffin (Connacht), A Conway (Munster), I Keatley (Munster), P Marshall (Ulster), C Black (Ulster), N Annett (Ulster), M Bent (Leinster), M Kearney (Leinster), D Foley (Munster), D Ryan (Leinster, captain), T O’Donnell (Munster), R Copeland (Munster).

Replacements. JJ Hanrahan for Keatley (40), J Treacy (Leinster) for Annett (42), J Ryan for Bent (46).