Despite tries from Terry Kennedy, Foster Horan and Jordan Conroy, all converted by Billy Dardis, Canada came out on top in a tough battle between the two teams.

A tough loss for the Irish in a high tempo, physical game on the opening day.

Ireland managed to bounce back to winning form later in the day as a strong second-half display saw them overcome Spain 28-17.

Quick feet from Jack Kelly gave Horan a score with Dardis converting. Spain hit back with an excellent piece of skill for Lopez to cross the line which was quickly followed by another after finding a hole in the Irish defense.

A loop play from Kennedy and Dardis found speedster Conroy on the edge to take a 14 – 12 lead into half time.

Hugo Lennox burst through Spanish defense offloading to Kennedy who touched down adding another 7 early in the second half and lateral play found Harry McNulty out wide to fight his way between the sticks for another seven pointer with Dardis converting.

Spain finish strongly with Lopez adding 5 in the last play of the game.

Veredamu began the scoring in the 3rd minute with the French adding the addition 2 from Riva.

Play continued with Ireland capitalizing on their possession for Conroy to make his way to the line with Dardis converting to leave the scores level after 7 mins played.

Play continued for another 2 mins with Parez sneaking past the Irish defense to go ahead 12 – 7 at half time.

The second half was fairly even but Ireland were unable to cross the line once more and France grabbed a late score from Veredamu to wrap up the game.

With Ireland ranked 10th and Scotland 13th, after the pool stages,  this was set to be a tight contest.

Ireland were on the attack first and Terry Kennedy found a gap in the middle to open the scores with Dardis adding the extras.

Conroy sees yellow as he is penalized for an intentional knock down allowing the Scottish to use their extra man to their advantage and score outside through Fife.

Scotland’s McFarland and Ireland’s Kennedy swap tries before the break to take it to 12 – all at half time.

The roles are reversed in the 2nd half as Lowe sees yellow allowing Conroy to spin off two and score under the posts.

Lowe returns to the pitch fighting and levels the scores at 19 all before a perfectly weighted cross field kick allows the Scots to clinch the victory with Alec Coombes crossing in the corner in the closing minute.