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LESSONS LEARNED BY THE LIFFEY

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS

Sean Lamont scored a late consolation try for Scotland ‘A’ at Dublin’s RDS but were unable to derail an impressive Ireland team from running in four scores on the night to win 35-10.

Trailing by 14 points – including a try – scored by Irish stand-off Jonathan Sexton, Scotland ‘A’ responded with a penalty scored by youngster Ruaridh Jackson.

But after the break, Scotland were reduced to 14 men when prop David Young was yellow-carded and the home side were also awarded a penalty try in the process.

Ireland made the numerical advantage count when back rower John Muldoon powered over the whitewash to extend their lead.

The try scored by scrum half Eoin Reddan, capped 28 times at senior level, proved to be Ireland’s final one of the night and heightened the woes of Scotland ‘A’’s inexperienced side.

A positive that emerged from the game was that lock Scott MacLeod made his first international appearance for eight months when he replaced Craig Hamilton in the second half.

Afterwards, Scotland ‘A’ coach Andy Robinson highlighted the pluses that could be taken from the match, but also pinpointed the areas that need to be worked upon before the next fixture against Italy ‘A’ at McDiarmid Park (Friday 27 February, kick off 7.30pm).

Robinson said: “The positives were that Stuart Corsar did really well, the guys kept on working hard and we scored a cracking try right at the end.

“The three key areas that we need to improve on are our set piece, our defence close to the line and the amount of balls that were turned over at the tackle area.

“That is something that the guys need to learn from and it was a tough night, although we did score a good try right at the end.

“We conceded too many penalties early on and then we got turned over on the half-way line with Ireland running through to score.

“So we were 14-3 down at half-time. In the second half, we had troubles at the scrum and they scored from them. In some respects, we conceded three rather soft tries.”

Scotland A: Steve Jones (Gordon Ross), Sean Lamont, Ben Cairns CAPTAIN, Rob Dewey, Jim Thompson (Andrew Turnbull), Ruaridh Jackson, Mark McMillan (Greig Laidlaw); Stuart Corsar, Fergus Thomson (Scott Lawson), David Young (Bruce McNeil), Craig Hamilton (Scott MacLeod), Dan Turner, Scott Newlands (Steve Swindall), Alan MacDonald, John Beattie.