Second half tries from Andrew Conway, Luke Marshall and Niall Annett gave Ireland a 30 – 13 win over Scotland.

As predicted the first half was a tense affair with Ireland inching ahead with Patrick Jackson kicking two penalties to Scotland’s one from Duncan Weir to give Ireland a 6 – 3 lead at the break.

Things remained tight in the second half with Jackson and Weir swapping penalties in the opening quarter to push the score along to 9 – 6.  The game exploded into life with centre Brendan Macken blasting  through the Scottish defence to set up Andrew Conway for his fourth try of the tournament. Jackson converted, moving Ireland into a 16 – 6 lead. Conway now stands second in the JWC all time try list with 9 touchdowns, one behind New Zealand’s Zac Guildford.

As the pressure fell off their shoulders Ireland cut loose with the impressive Iain Henderson linking with Marshall on another terrific attack. Marshall crossed the line on the left and finished under the posts for  replacement out half James McKinney to add the extras putting Ireland in control with the score reading 21 – 6.

Ireland sealed the win when hooker and captain Niall Annett blasted over in the centre, making it three in five minutes, following some good approach work from replacements David Doyle and Daniel Qualter. McKinney’s kick made it 30 – 6.

Scotland gained some consolation in the form of a last-minute try from centre Danny Gilmour, but it was too little too late with the game ending 30 – 13 in Ireland’s favour.

Match Stats from the IRB.

With Fiji recording a bonus point win earlier in the day the result means that Ireland qualify as 8th seeds and will compete in the 5th place semi finals. They now face South Africa, who lost to England, on Wednesday evening in Padova.

Ireland and South Africa are joined in their play off section by Wales and Fiji.

Semi Final Fixtures

All matches take place on 22 June 2011