Ireland: (0) 18

Tries: O’Neill (2), Cullen Goals: Battishill (3)

Scotland: (18) 28

Tries: Campbell, May, Oakley, Emslie, Simpson Goals: Williams (4)

A thrilling, back and forth contest was eventually won by Scotland, but not after a memorable comeback from Ireland that had the crowd on their feet.

The early exchanges gave both sides a chance to try out set moves and look for gaps in the defence, with a lot of hard tackling already going it.

Scotland made the breakthrough when Elliott Campbell found space to plough through desperate cover tackles and put Scotland ahead, a lead they increased with two tries in five minutes as clever back play from Fergus Simpson and Alex Williams put May over under the posts and Iain Oakley in the corner

This performance by Scotland looked to be too much for the Irish, but they made the best efforts to comeback, with hard hits, big kicks and direct passing getting them closer to the line.

They finally made a breakthrough just after half-time when Calum O’Neill powered over from a close range penalty to spark new life into the contest.

This continued with a Sam Cullen try on 50 minutes and the crowd went wild just five minutes later when O’Neill got his second with a powerful arching run.

The game continued to flow, with neither side giving away much until right near the end, when Emslie broke Irish hearts with a powerful run that drove him over the line with three defenders

As the Irish defence tired, Fergus Simpson added more emphasis to the score with a try after going through a big gap, with the extras added by Williams to make the final score 30-18 to Scotland

Scotland will face France in the Cup Semi-Finals, while Ireland will play Italy in the Ranking Semi-Final