Ireland were convincing winners of a men’s senior international against Scotland at Gateshead International Stadium, running in six tries in a 36-6 success. Skipper George King opened the scoring and scrum half Joe Keyes crossed twice for the Wolfhounds, Aiden McGowan also a try scorer on his debut in front of 463 fans.

Ireland men’s head coach, Ged Corcoran, noted: “I was really pleased and proud of the boys after only three sessions together. It’s two years since this squad last played together, but they care about this jersey and their country which makes my job easy.”

Scotland pegged it back to 6-all midway through the first half, Matty Fletcher latching on to Izaac Farrell’s grubber, but couldn’t hold their opponents late in each half. “The penalty count of 7-2 against us in the first half didn’t help,” said Scotland men’s head coach Nathan Graham. “We were under the pump possession wise and ran out of steam in the second half. All credit to our guys, we had nine young debutants and that’s a massive bonus for Scotland Rugby League.”