Nelson inspires Scotland to shock win

IRELAND suffered a surprise defeat against Scotland in the Women’s Six Nations Championship at Donnybrook yesterday, bringing their Triple Crown hopes for 2018 to an end. With 12 consecutive triumphs over the Scots, Ireland were hot favourites to continue their winning run under interim head coach Adam Griggs. Yet, Scotland controlled possession for much of the opening quarter and broke the deadlock with a routine Helen Nelson penalty in the seventh minute. A series of handling errors meant that Ireland struggled to build the kind of momentum which helped them to comfortably defeat Wales two weeks earlier. Scotland entered the interval with a three-point lead, which was increased within minutes of the restart. Nelson held off challenges from Lindsay Peat and Megan Williams to touch down in the left-corner. Disaster struck on the hour mark, though, when Scotland overcame the absence of the sin-binned Megan Kennedy to cross the Irish line for a second time through Chloe Rollie. Although they kept themselves in contention, Ireland couldn’t claw back in the closing stages. IRELAND: K Flood; M Williams (L Galvin 61), K Fitzhenry, S Naoupu, H Tyrrell; N Briggs (M Claffey 68), A Hughes (N Cronin 66); L Peat (L Feely 74), C Moloney, L Lyons (F Reidy 63), A McDermott, O Fitzsimons (A Baxter 45), C Griffin, C Molloy, P Fitzpatrick. Scorers - Tries: Penalty try and con, P Fitzpatrick SCOTLAND: C Rollie; L Musgrove, L Thomson, H Nelson (L Harris 70), H Smith; L Martin, S Law (J Maxwell h-t); S McMillan (L Smith 53), L Skeldon, Kennedy (J Rettie 68), E Wassell, D McCormack, S Bonar (L McMillan h-t), R Malcolm (S Cattigan 74), J Konkel. Scorers - Tries: H Nelson, C Rollie Con: L Skeldon Pen: H Nelson Referee: I Tempest (England).