Ireland U20s 24-19 Fiji U20s<\/p>\n
Ireland survived an almighty scare from Fiji at the Junior World Championship in Kutaisi, Georgia, to claim their second win of the tournament.<\/p>\n
Having finished third in Pool C, Andrew Browne’s side were up against a team they have never lost to at the age grade, but at the end were left clinging on for a 24-19 win in a game that saw five yellow cards, two for the men in green.<\/p>\n
The result means Ireland take on Italy next Saturday in their final outing as they aim to finish ninth overall.<\/p>\n
In sticky conditions, it was Ireland that struck first, Daniel Ryan with a brilliant induvial effort for his fifth try of the tournament.<\/p>\n
Diarmaid O\u2019Connell\u2019s 22nd minute try from the base of the scrum was sandwiched by Fiji efforts that ensured the islanders trailed 14-12 at the interval, while Ireland were down to 14 temporarily when second row Joe Finn was sin-binned for a high tackle.<\/p>\n
Munster\u2019s James O\u2019Leary crossed three minutes after the resumption to extend the lead to 21-10. It appeared that Ireland would kick for home, with a couple of Irish tries ruled out on review, while their opponents lost two players to the sinbin.<\/p>\n
The underdogs, who got their first win in this tournament in 14 years when they beat Spain in the pool stage, refused however to throw in the towel.<\/p>\n
A converted try made it a two-point game, though Daniel Green\u2019s 77th-minute penalty gave Ireland more of a buffer coming down the stretch.<\/p>\n
When Irish replacement Harry Waters was yellow carded late on, and Fiji kicked the corner, Ireland looked in real danger of losing.<\/p>\n
In the final play however, Fiji were pinged for an infringement on a five-metre lineout as Ireland held on.<\/p>\n
Scorers<\/p>\n
Ireland tries: Daniel Ryan, Diarmaid O’Connell, James O\u2019Leary<\/p>\n
Cons: Daniel Green (3)<\/p>\n
Pen: Daniel Green (1)<\/p>\n
Fiji tries: Isikeli Bari, Sailosi Taka, Apete Rokosuka<\/p>\n
Cons: Tevita Ledua, Netani Lesimaikimatuku<\/p>\n
Ireland: Charlie Molony; Johnny O’Sullivan, Jack Deegan, James O\u2019Leary, Daniel Ryan; Daniel Green, Christopher Barrett; Max Doyle, Duinn Maguire, Blake McClean; Joe Finn, Donnacha McGuire; Josh Neill (capt), Alex Lautsou, Diarmaid O\u2019Connell.<\/p>\n
Replacements: Rian Handley, Adam Cooper, Jamie Conway, Sean Walsh, Charlie Keane, Luke Coffey, Sean Walsh, Harry Waters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland U20s 24-19 Fiji U20s Ireland survived an almighty scare from Fiji at the Junior World Championship in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-548232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}