Humiliated Scotland Under-20s given Six Nations rugby lesson as Ireland chalk up record score

This was a tough watch and a brutal demonstration of just how far off the pace Scottish Rugby is when it comes to player development pathways, as Ireland Under-20s marched to a 82-7 win over their Scotland counterparts at Scotstoun.

Scotland's Johnny Rutherford is consoled at full time by an Irish counterpart after the heavy loss at Scotstoun.

In truth, the margin between the teams at the end could have been wider – and the Scots deserve some credit for digging in during the second half to ensure that the opposition score did not reach triple digits. “First of all, I’m sorry to everyone who came along tonight – that’s not the performance we wanted to put out,” said Scotland co-captain Duncan Munn said afterwards. “That score is embarrassing. It is going to be a really tough review. There are no excuses. That’s how brutal international rugby can be. We have to pick ourselves up because we have another game to go next Saturday [against an Italy team who will be on a high after beating Wales].”

The visitors ran into a 47-0 half-time lead with tries from Andrew Osborne, Fiachna Barrett, Gus McCarthy, Fintan Gunne and James McNabney all touching down, while Ruadhan Quinn claimed a brace. Sam Pendergast – the visiting team’s classy stand-off – slotted six out of seven conversions. During that first 40 minutes the visitors enjoyed 71 per cent of possession and carried the ball for 770 metres, compared to Scotland’s 148 metres made. It really was men against boys and the half-time whistle came as a blessed belief.

To their credit, Scotland regrouped during the break and came out firing at the start of the second half with some ferocious counter-rucking from flankers Rudi Brown and Liam McConnell winning a turnover penalty, leading indirectly to the hosts’ only points of the night through a Corey Tait try and Luke Townsend conversion.

Ireland soon regained control with replacement second-row Diarmuid Mangan rampaged home from 40 metres., before Quinn dived in for his hat-trick. Then Scotland suffered a body blow with 15 minutes left when second-row Jake Parkinson was red-carded following head-on-head contact with opposite number Evan O'Connell. A flurry of late Irish scores from Danny Sheehan, Rory Telfer and Oscar Cawley took Ireland past the 80-point mark.