Better play from Scots but Ireland's late burst brings victory

Scotland's women put in a much improved showing, but ultimately lost out 22-5 to Ireland at Lasswade.

The teams were evenly matched in the early exchanges, but a good run from experienced Irish centre Lynne Cantwell gave them the lead after six minutes.

Cantwell took the ball 30 metres out and weaved her way past a couple of defenders to score just to the right of the posts. It was unconverted, but 60 seconds later the same player was on her way again, this time up the left only for a superb cover tackle from Scotland winger Katy Green to bundle her into touch.

Scotland evened things up in the 15th minute, an expansive move eventually seeing second-row Lindsay Wheeler give winger Lauren Harris the scoring pass.

For the remainder of the half the teams were fairly evenly matched with scrum-half Louise Dalgliesh at the heart of a lot of good work.

Ireland regained the lead in the 52nd minute when a neat move set up powerful centre Geraldine Rea who managed to beat the defence and touch down.

Scotland were still very much in this one though and continued to dominate at scrum time, but too often passes went astray.

In the 63rd minute Scotland were given a lifeline when Rea was sin-binned for not rolling away, but it was the 14 players of Ireland who extended their lead.

A try from full-back Niamh Briggs in the 67th minute was a body blow to the Scots and the visitors added another through Cantwell to win 22-5.