Ireland U20s avoid last-placed finish at World Championship with late try against Spain

The 42

2 days ago

Ireland U20s 38
Spain U20s 37
IRELAND U20S SEALED a late win over Spain to avoid the embarrassment of a last-placed finish at the World U20 Rugby Championship in Calvisano.
Henry Walker's 78th-minute try — the hooker's second of the game — ensured that Ireland finished second from bottom of the standings, albeit relegation was never on the line with the tournament set to be expanded to 16 teams next year.
Ireland took an early 14-0 lead against the Spaniards, with centre Jonny Scott opening the scoring off a lineout penalty and Charlie Molony adding Ireland's second try off a scrum attack. Both scores were converted by Tom Wood.
Spain opened their account through the boot of Nicolas Infer on 10 minutes before Pau Massoni scored their first try, unconverted, for 14-8 before the quarter-hour mark.
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Daniel Green's unconverted try on 20 minutes pushed Ireland out to 19-8 and when Scott crossed again seven minutes from the break, with Wood adding the afters, Neil Doak's side led 26-8.
But loosehead Alberto Gomez responded for the Spanish, with Infer converting for 26-15 moments before half-time.
An Infer penalty reduced the arrears further shortly after the restart and when Marcel Carreras dotted down for a seven-pointer three minutes later, Spain had moved to within a point.
Ireland hooker Walker then scored from a lineout maul on 48 minutes, with Munster out-half Wood extending Ireland's lead back out to two scores at 33-25.
A yellow for the try-scorer, though, saw Spain turn the contest on its head with back row Victor Ofojetu and Toulouse 10 Lucien Richardis scoring tries in quick succession to either side of the hour mark, the latter of which was converted by Gonzalo Otamendi for a 37-33 Spanish lead.
With a quarter of an hour remaining, however, loosehead Dani Chico received a straight red for a high hit, and Ireland pushed to avoid a humiliating loss.
Wood had a try disallowed on 73 minutes for a knock-on in the lead-up by double try-scorer Scott, but Ulster man Walker spared Ireland's blushes as he scored from a lineout drive in the right-hand corner with just over two minutes remaining.
After a string of strong Six Nations campaigns as well as final and semi-final berths at the last two World Championships, Ireland have endured a poor season under Neil Doak and his coaching team, finishing last in the Six Nations and narrowly avoiding the same fate in Italy on Saturday.