SCOTLAND’S international shinty players maintained their winning ways with their fifth victory in a row in the Mowi-sponsored mixed-code game over Ireland’s hurlers.
With a winning margin of 26 (5-11) to 4 (0-4) the difference in points between the sides at the GAA’s National Games Development Centre in Abbotstown near Dublin on Saturday was much greater than in recent years. The hurlers were unable to score a single goal and had to content themselves with a mere four points from distance throughout the course of the action.
For Scotland boss Gary Reid, the result was an emphatic endorsement of his game plan on the day. “The main thing we focused on was on preventing Ireland playing their natural aerial game. We had to be quick in the tackle in defence and the backline of Rory Kennedy, Daniel Grieve, Finlay MacRae and eventual man of the match Blair Morrison denied their opposite numbers time and space all afternoon. The final score makes it clear that there are some excellent shinty players out there and we should celebrate that fact.”
Despite where they ended up Ireland started brightly and within the first eight minutes they had gone two points up with single strikes from distance from Kildare’s Paul Divilly and Donegal’s Danny Cullen.
At this stage, with the Scots taking time to settle, Ireland looked comfortable but disappointingly for them, their finishing was wayward – especially that of midfielder Cillian Kiely, who pulled two dead-ball opportunities wide when he might have given his side a more secure lead.
Scotland eventually got to grips with the game, however, and after a Steven MacDonald attempt had been blocked by keeper Brian Tracey, Daniel Cameron pounced on a ball in broken play to fire it over for Scotland’s first point of the afternoon.
The visitors then began to move forward with more purpose and could have done more when a long ball over the defence from Craig Mainland saw Craig Morrison fail to hit the target. Not that it mattered too much because Caberfeidh’s Kevin Bartlett was soon on hand to notch a two-pointer following a kick by an Irish defender.
The contest was still tight, however, but misses from Willie Dunphy and again from Kiely did nothing for Irish morale That was further dented on the half hour when a long ball forward and some neat Scots interplay saw Craig Morrison score the visitors’ first goal of the afternoon. A few minutes later, a close-range finish from Andrew MacCuish gave Scotland another three-point goal. And though Kiely finally managed to grab a single for the hurlers, the half-time whistle saw the Scots firmly in control with a points score of 9-3 in their favour.
Whatever was said in the Irish dressing room at half-time by managers Willie Maher and Conor Phelan, it had no obvious effect because an excellent goal by Morrison just after the restart and a distance strike by Newtonmore’s MacDonald quickly added another five points to Scotland’s total.
Damian Healy then managed to claw back one further solitary Irish point with a massive strike from his own half, but by that stage the home side appeared broken and in the last quarter Scotland were able to canter to victory with further goals from Bartlett and Roddy MacDonald. Steven MacDonald added another four points and Kingussie’s Savio Genini added two to completed the rout.
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