Portugal fiasco sees rampant Irish pass the 100 mark
- Updated: 12/07/2025
Portugal 7, Ireland 106
IF this was a boxing match it would have been called off long before the break. From the opening score after 50 seconds, it was a total one-sided bore and for the Ireland fans who basked in the sun the outcome was just a formality with their side cruising at the break with a 0-52 lead. Questions will be asked about the lack of some crucial issues and it reached farcical level when the 40 minutes aparatus for the end was also found to be faulty.
Ireland were 28-0 up after twleve minutes with tries from McCloskey, Hugh Gavin, Jimmy O’Brien and Shane Bolton scoring, all converted by Jack Crowley. We prayed for a score from Portugal but when they did cross the line it was disallowed for a forward pass. The try feast continued with tries from Tommy O’Brien, Thomas Clarkson and a second try from Stuart McCloskey with the accuracy of Jackie Crowley’s right boot adding to the 52-o at half time.
How we wished that the home side would get the first score of the second half, but no, Craig Casey went over near the posts to extend the lead to 59. After that one was tempted to switch off to another channel as scores followed from Frawley, Nash, Prendergast, Candellen and Ben Murphy getting in for scores that increased the embarassment of the home camp.
Let’s hope that mis-matches like this one are avoided in the future.
Ireland: Jimmy O’Brien; Tommy O’Brien, Hugh Gavin, Stuart McCloskey, Shayne Bolton; Jack Crowley, Craig Casey (capt); Jack Boyle, Gus McCarthy, Thomas Clarkson; Tom Ahern, Darragh Murray; Ryan Baird, Alex Kendellen, Cian Prendergast.
Replacements: Tom Stewart, Michael Milne, Tom O’Toole, Cormac Izuchukwu, Max Deegan, Ben Murphy, Ciarán Frawley, Calvin Nash.
Portugal:
David Costa
Luka Begic
Diogo Hasse Ferreira
Antonio Rebelo de Andrade
Pedro Ferreira
David Wallis de Carvalho
Nicolas Martins
Diego Pinheiro Ruiz
Hugo Gomes Camacho
Hugo Aubry
Manuel Cardoso Pinto
Tomas Appleton
Vincent Pinto
Nuno Sousa Guedes
Simao Bento
Substitutes: 16. Abel da Cunha, 17. Pedro Santiago Lopes, 18. Martim Souto, 19. Guilherme Costa, 20. Francisco Almeida, 21. Vasco Baptista, 22. Antonio Campos, 23. Gabriel Aviragnet
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