SCOTLAND finished in their highest ranking position of eighth at the World Rugby Under-20 Championship, but a second reverse against Ireland in yesterday's seventh/eighth place play-off at Viadana scraped the shine off their new-found place on the international ladder.
The Scots had hoped to atone for their earlier defeat to Ireland when they lost 20-24 but in the event Sean Lineen's side were far from realising their aim after a performance that was blighted by botched scoring chances.
"We missed chances and that's been the story of this tournament for us. The passes didn't stick," the head coach said. "We struggled to adapt to the Japanese referee.
"He seemed to have no idea about the contact area or the set scrum and their driving just killed us.
The difficulty for Lineen is that he has been working with a young squad, 15 of whom will be eligible for next year's championship in Manchester. Ireland, by contrast, will only have five returning next year and that difference in age was a telling factor.
It told in Scotland's execution of basic skills and their ability to play under pressure. By contrast Ireland were slicker with ball in hand and just that more streetwise than the young Scots.
It all looked promising for Scotland in the opening phases as they took an early lead with a penalty goal by full-back Blair Kinghorn.
But the luck of the Irish then influenced the game. From a speculative kick ahead, the ball bounced cruelly for Robbie Nairn and straight into the hands of Ireland winger Stephen Fitzgerald, who romped in at the corner. Crucially, Ireland stand-off Joey Carberry kicked the touchline conversion goal to give Ireland a 7-3 lead.
Scotland should have capitalised from a quickly taken tap penalty by Ben Vellacott who scorched to the line only to be chopped down a metre short. It was the lack of support that resulted in no dividend from the scrum-half's break.
Richard Galloway set up a scoring chance with a break through the inside channel but his pass to Vellacott was just behind the scrum-half and a further chance went begging.
A second penalty goal by Kinghorn brought some reward for endeavour, but Scotland should have made more of a driving maul close to the Ireland line just on half-time when they provided yet another example of a missed opportunity.
A goal kick by Garry Ringrose widened Ireland's lead and seemed to affect the Scots who lost two successive line-outs on their own throw.
A penalty goal by replacement scrum-half George Horne gave the Scots hope again only for Ireland to deliver a crushing blow with a clever try by Fitzgerald topped off by Ringrose's conversion.
IRELAND U20: B Dardis; S Fitzgerald, G Ringrose, S Arnold, J Stockdale; J Carberry, C Rock; A Porter, Z McCall, C O'Donnell, D O'Connor, A Thompson, J Murphy, R Moloney, L Dow. Replacements used: A McBurney, L O'Connor, O Heffernan, C Romaine, N Timoney, J Cullen, F Cleary, C Gaffney
SCOTLAND U20: B Kinghorn; R Nairn, A Coombes, P Kelly, R Galloway; R Hutchinson, B Vellacott; M McCallum, S James, Z Fagerson, S Cummings, A Miller, N Irvine-Hess, J Ritchie, M Bradbury. Replacements used: R Graham, D Elkington, J Owlett, R Knott, L Wynne, G Horne, T Galbraith, A Russell
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