A SECOND defeat to Ireland in the World Rugby Under-20 Championships fifth and final round of matches in Viadana was a disappointing end to Sean Lineen's side's tournament after an earlier part of the season that had shown such promise.

Scotland won three of their matches in the Six Nations Championship, including victory against Ireland at Netherdale, but their inability to replicate this form in the heat of Italy left the Scots feeling short-changed.

Their one win, and it was from an inspired performance, was against Argentina in the third of the pool matches, which, together with a bonus point in the first game against Ireland, earned Scotland a first-ever place in the top eight for the last two rounds.

"I'm proud of the guys for beating Argentina and getting us into the top eight," said head coach Lineen. "But we wanted to finish on a good note. It's tough having five games in nineteen days. Maybe the mind was willing but the body wasn't. The Irish toughed it out and got away with a lot. They're clever that way.

"It was a poor game and we missed chances. But that's been the story of this tournament for us. In the Argentina game when the passes stuck we created opportunities. I feel very sorry for the players. They're better than that."

Scotland were unable to cross the Ireland line - in contrast to their opponents who had a couple of touchdowns both from their alert wing Stephen Fitzgerald. The first came from a rogue bounce that completely wrong-footed Robbie Nairn and allowed Fitzgerald in at the corner.

His second was a well constructed try in the last quarter that killed off Scotland's chances of salvaging the game. Scotland's young full back Blair Kinghorn, who is still at school, kicked two penalty goals, the other three points coming from the Glasgow Hawks scrum half George Horne.

The Scots were unable to convert three clear chances in the first half which sucked the spirit from the team. And according to Ireland head coach Nigel Carolan, it was his side's advantage in terms of maturity which allowed them to edge the encounter.

"I think we showed a little maturity towards the end of the game with the timing of our second try, said Carolan. "There was only one point in it at that stage and the try gave us that two-score gap and just took the pressure off, so we were able to close the game out."

The consolation for Scotland is that 15 of the 28-man squad will be eligible for next year's championship. But the challenge remains in Scotland to produce enough young players able to cope with the demands made of them at this tournament.

Meanwhile, in the final at Cremona New Zealand recaptured the World Under-20 title after a four-year gap with a 21-16 win over defending champions England.

Scorers Ireland under-20 Tries Fitzgerald (2) Cons Carberry, Ringrose Pen Ringrose Scotland under-20 Pens Kinghorn (2), Horne

IRELAND U-20: B Dardis ; S Fitzgerald, G Ringrose, S Arnold, J Stockdale; J Carbery, 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 U-20: B Kinghorn; R Nairn, A Coombes, P Kelly, R Galloway; R Hutchinson, B Vellacott; M McCallum, S James, Z Fagerson, Scott Cummings, A Miller, N Irvine-Hess, J Ritchie, M Bradbury.Replacement used R Graham, D Elkington, J Owlett, R Knott, L Wynne, G Horne, T Galbraith, A Russell

Referee S Kubo (Japan)