Ireland 34, Scotland 0:Ireland's disappointment in finishing in ninth place as the host nation in the IRB Under-19 World Championships was at least eased somewhat by a rousing final flourish with the rout of Scotland.
The ninth-place play-off game had been switched to Ravenhill to serve as a warm-up act for the finals and Charlie McAleese's side did not disappoint.
Ireland ran in five tries in all, with Kieran Essex, Jamie Smith, Eoin O'Malley, Scott Deasy and Tommy Seymour touching down.
Deasy also slotted three conversions and a penalty in a vastly contrasting match to the pool encounter in which Ireland had squeezed home 13-12 via an injury-time try by O'Malley. And McAleese believes his side's final placing, following pool defeats to Australia and South Africa and a classification victory over Japan, was a little harsh.
"It is almost unique in this tournament to draw two Southern Hemisphere sides in the pool games," said McAleese. "The efforts we put into both those games were two of the peaks in the tournament and we had a bit of a trough against Scotland first time out and Japan.
"We left a chart on the board in the team room and said we would peak again and the boys proved they were capable of doing that against Scotland.
"Ninth place, without the sour grapes coming into . . . I think we were probably a middle-four team in this tournament realistically.
"There was an expectation and pressure on us and the boys have coped with that remarkably well. They have been disappointed but I have told them they have no right to be. This team has performed awesomely during the tournament and I am delighted they got their reward against Scotland."
SCORING SEQUENCE:9 mins: K Essex try, 5-0; 30: J Smith try, S Deasy con, 12-0: 37: Deasy pen, 15-0; 45: E O'Malley try, Deasy con, 22-0; 47: Deasy try and con, 29-0; 69: T Seymour try, 34-0.
IRELAND UNDER-19:A Craig; A Gaughan, J Smith, E O'Malley, T Seymour; S Deasy, H McAleese; P Karayiannis, S Douglas, P McCabe; D Foley, I Nagle; J Harris-Wright, P Ryan, K Essex. Replacements: R Reilly for Harris-Wright (34 mins), M Sherry for Karayiannis, I Leonard for Douglas, M Kinsella for Smith (all 35 mins).
SCOTLAND UNDER-19:M Allan; L Jones, C Kinloch, S McColl, T Bury; R Jackson, M Heeks; G Strain, A Duncan, J Stafford; N Patrick, J Brown; F McKenzie, S Burton, A Wukovits. Replacements: K Bryce for McKenzie (20-25 mins), L Niven for Strain, C Charters for Patrick, R Samson for McKenzie, C Simmonds for Heeks (all 37 mins), M Nelson for McCabe (46 mins).
Referee:D Richards (England).
