WHEELCHAIR WORLD CUP 5TH/6TH PLAYOFF

Ireland earned their second successive victory in the wheelchair rugby league world cup as they capped off their tournament with an excellent seven-try effort to claim fifth place.

Captain Nathan Clarke was instrumental in leading his team as a hat trick from Damian McCabe, a pair of tries from Jodie Boyd-Ward and a superb solo-effort from Vicky Irwin gave Ireland a 28-4 cushion at halftime.

The Scottish, who were looking to improve from their previous 26-6 defeat to Ireland on Tuesday, fought back with two tries from Sean Frame and one from Joey Probst.

However, Tom Burns had the last word for the Irish as he touched down just before the final hooter to close out the win.

“This has been a great experience because we are a fairly new team and we haven’t really played with each other before,” said Boyd-Ward.

“We went out today and it was a case of play hard, keep the ball moving and that’s what we did to get the tries.”Ireland opened the scoring as Boyd-Ward offloaded to Vicky Irwin for a 4-0 headstart.

McCabe then landed two scores in as many minutes to put the Irish further in front.Boyd-Ward crashed in the corner for her first score of the game to increase the gap to 18-0.

With 18 minutes until the break, captain Clarke linked up with McCabe as he coasted through unchallenged to complete his hat trick.

Scotland got on the scoreboard as Frame got a hand to Jamie Seery’s high kick after Ireland mishandled before Boyd-Ward grounded her second score as the Irish led comfortably at the break.

Two minutes into the second half, Scotland were penalised for offside and Clarke converted with ease.

Scotland refused to let their head drops and remained high-spirited as Probst dived under the posts for Scotland’s second try. John Cairns added the extras to make the score read 30-10.

After 15 minutes of strong and well-disciplined defence from both sides, Probst picked out Frame on the right wing for the Scots third try of the game and Frame’s second.

Both sides had opportunities to affect the scoreline near the end of the game. Scotland chased down a high kick but Boyd-Ward got their first for a goal-line dropout.

Burns eventually did have the last word and Josh Gardner converted after the buzzer as Ireland sealed their second successive world cup win.

IRELAND
Rachael Irwin, John McGuire, Vicky Irwin, Damian McCabe, Tom Burns, Jodie Boyd-Ward, Josh Gardner, Nathan Clarke

SCOTLAND
Sean Frame, Tam Pincock, Joey Probst, Chris Calderwood, Graeme Stewart, Elizabeth Ferris, John Cairns, Jamie Seery