The Ireland U20s Rugby World Cup journey came to an end this evening after a disappointing 20-24 loss to an unfancied Georgia side.
Ireland got off to a bumpy start when Arsen Machaladze touched down in the 10 minute, with Tgela Aprasidze adding the conversion.
Conor Dean replied with a penalty, but Caelan Doris was soon penalised for hands in the ruck and Aprasidze kicked another penalty to restore their seven point lead.
Georgia went down to 14 men on 19 minutes after a high tackle by Sandro Mamamtavrishvili, but it didn't affect their attacking prowess as Sandro Svanidze intercepted a pass from James Hume to race clear for Georgia's second try of the afternoon:
Intercept. SANDRO SVANIDZE GOES ALL THE WAY. @GeorgianRugby are off to a flying start against Ireland. Georgia 17 Ireland 3 #WorldRugbyU20spic.twitter.com/2xFbD8xzUt
— World Rugby (@WorldRugby) June 7, 2018
Ireland replied with a try from Conor Dean, but the St. Mary's man couldn't kick the conversion, leaving the scores at 8-17 at the break.
Georgian came out strong in the second half and scored their third try of the game when Deme Tapladze kicked forward for Tedo Abzhandadze who showed great pace to finish the move. Aprasidze subsuquently converted from under the posts.
Ireland huffed and puffed for much of the second half and were denied two tries by the TMO, who first adjudged that Caelen Doris had made a double movement when he broke from a ruck to touch down and secondly when Doris was ruled to have given a forward pass to Jonny Stewart on 70 minutes.
The boys in green would finally get their first score of the second half after Cormac Daly grounded the ball on 77 minutes, with Harry Byrne adding the extras.
Noel MacNamara's men never gave up and added another try with the final play of the game, Bryan O'Connor touching down after great maul work by Ireland. But it was to be Georgia's day as they sealed their first and only win of the group stages, leaving Ireland with the wooden spoon, with the final score on the day 20-24.
