In the first of two uncapped warm-up games, the Ireland Women’s team went down 20-15 to their Scottish counterparts over the weekend. This match report is courtesy of ScrumQueens.com.
In their final outing before the Women’s Rugby World Cup, Scotland secured a confidence boosting win over Ireland in an uncapped training match at Lasswade.
The match played with two twenty-minute periods in the first half and a 40-minute second half. The Scots outscored the Irish 20-15 in a game where both coaches mixed around their teams.
The Scots conceded an unconverted try without reply in each of the first two 20 minute periods of the game from Amy Davis and Eliza Downey, however in the third period (of 40 minutes) they ran in three tries to overtake the Irish and secure the victory.
Scottish coach Gary Parker said: “We played well today. That was probably the most complete performance from start to finish that I’ve seen from this team.
“We’ve asked a lot of the players over the last six months and have really worked hard on improving the fitness and intensity of the play but also increase the players’ game knowledge.
“Today in particular the decision making in the scrum, lineout and breakdown was excellent.”
Winger Celia Hawthorn opened the scoring just eight minutes into the second ‘half’ with her first try for Scotland before a try from Louise Dalgliesh drew the scores level four minutes later 10-10.
A purple patch for Nicola Halfpenny then saw her double Scotland’s points tally as she slotted the conversion, scored Scotland’s third try (her first for Scotland) and the sent a penalty through the sticks, 20-10.
Ireland then bounced back with their third try of the match from Nora Stapleton to end the game.
The game was the first hit-out for Philip Doyle who took over as Irish coach recently. The Irish are also due to play Wales in a training match.
The result will matter little to either head coach as the training game was more about the opportunity to try out new combinations and work on patterns they will rely on at the World Cup. However, there is no doubt that a win of any sort was much-needed for Scotland and Parker will be pleased with the outcome.
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