Ireland 66
Russia 0
EMERGING IRELAND OPENED their Nations Cup campaign in style, running 10 tries past Russia in Bucharest today before the game was abandoned with Ireland awarded the points.
With 10 uncapped players in Dan McFarland’s XV, it might have been expected that the Irish side would struggle but two tries in the opening minutes put any potential nerves to rest.
Ian Keatley scored their first after just two minutes and though he missed the conversion, nailed five of seven first half attempts before being replaced by Munster’s JJ Hanrahan.
Andrew Conway scored three of Ireland’s eight first half scores with Robin Copeland, Craig Gilroy and Tommy O’Donnell also crossing the whitewash to make the score 52-0 at the break.
Ireland looked set to bring up triple figures after Niall Annett and Gilroy scored early in the second half before the weather intervened; Welsh referee Ian Davies calling the teams off the field due to “player safety” issues as Bucharest endured thunder, lightning and heavy rain.
With the storm showing no sign of dissipating, all sides agreed to abandon the game and McFarland’s men were awarded the points.
Next up for Emerging Ireland is Uruguay at 2pm (Irish time) on Wednesday June 18.
Emerging Ireland (v Russia): J Murphy; C Gilroy, E Griffin, S McCloskey, A Conway; I Keatley, P Marshall: C Black, N Annett, M Bent; M Kearney, D Foley; D Ryan (Capt.), T O’Donnell, R Copeland.Replacements: J Tracy, J Ryan, B Holland, S Dougall, L McGrath, JJ Hanrahan, B Macken.
