Scotland 8 - 32 Ireland: Scots women improve world ranking despite loss

In their final outing at this Rugby World Cup, Scotland Women fell short of reaching seventh place in the world rankings, as Ireland controlled the game putting in five tries to the Scots' one. By making eighth spot, however, the side has moved up one place and looks forward to building on the growth achieved at this tournament.

Said captain Lynne Reid: "As a team we believed we could have done better but we have improved our world ranking.

"Being able to play for parts of the game isn't good enough at this standard, however; we have to be able to execute it throughout the 80 minutes, to give ourselves a fighting chance."

Coach Gary Parker said: "It's a disappointing way to finish, just the way we played today. Ireland were the better team. We didn't play the game in the right areas and we allowed Ireland to feed off that and gather momentum, and get a couple of soft tries early.

"But all in all, there are far more positives than negatives in this tournament. A good crop of youngsters have gained experience of international rugby."

In the final yesterday, New Zealand triumphed 13-10 over England at Twickenham Stoop to claim a fourth successive world crown.

Scotland: N Halfpenny (Melrose); K Green (Murrayfield Wanderers), L Millard (Team Northumbria), V Fitzpatrick (Royal High Cougars), S Johnston (Hillhead / Jordanhill); T Griffith (Royal High Cougars), S Gill (Murrayfield Wanderers); H Lockhart (Hillhead/Jordanhill), S-L Walker (Watsonians), B Dickens (Murrayfield Wanderers), G McCord (Royal High Cougars), L Wheeler (Darlington Mowden Park), L Reid (Royal High Cougars, capt), D Kennedy (Worcester), S Brown (Richmond). Subs: A Macdonald (Royal High Cougars), L Moffat (Murrayfield Wanderers), R Murphy (Edinburgh University), R Slaven (Murrayfield Wanderers), L Martin (Murrayfield Wanderers), L Dalgliesh (Royal High Cougars), S Newton (Team Northumbria).

Ireland: N Briggs; E Downey, J O'Sullivan, L Cantwell, M Kelly; H Brosnan, L Beamish; F Coghlan (capt), G Bourke, L Austin, K O'Loughlin, ML Reilly, C Staunton, C Molloy, J Neville. Subs: Y Nolan, L Guest, O Brennan, S Ryan, A Davis, S Houston, J Shiels.