By Ian Golden

Ireland opened their Celtic Cup campaign with a dominating win over Scotland.

It took just two minutes for Peter Johnston to give Ireland the lead with a try in the corner. He nearly followed that up straight away but knocked on as he reached for the line.

However, Johnston made no mistake next time around, converting his own try to give Ireland a 10-0 lead.

Scotland got over the line on 17 minutes when Michael Grant broke through. His brother Dan Grant converted before going over himself and converting to give Scotland the lead.

Ireland hit back straight away through James McCarthy, then Joe Calcott extended their lead with Johnston converting.

Mark Wooloff, who played for USA in last year’s World Cup, finished things off in the first half with an unconverted try to give Ireland a 24-12 lead at the break.

The Irish quickly extended their advantage with a try from Calcott and two from Wooloff with Johnston converting the first two.

Straight from kick-off of the third of those tries, Callum Young picked up from a bounce from kick-off and zoomed over. Dan Grant converted well.

But Johnston soon scored in the corner for his hat-trick to address the balance. Pete Lauder hit back again for the Scots with Dan Grant converting, before Johnston went over for two more, one in each corner.

Melanie Griffith, with her first touch of the ball in Wheelchair Rugby League, got the final try to cement the win. She was paralysed less than a year ago and started playing Wheelchair Basketball before giving this game a go.