LYNDON DYKES SCORED a late double as Scotland moved impressively to the top of their Nations League group with a thumping 3-0 win over Ukraine at Hampden Park.
After a goalless first half, striker Che Adams and midfielder Stuart Armstrong missed good chances before skipper John McGinn fired home a 70th-minute drive and Dykes headed in twice from fellow replacement Ryan Fraser’s corners for a morale-boosting win.
The Scots had been well-beaten by Ukraine in the 2022 World Cup semi-final play-off in June but they had the measure of Oleksandr Petrakov’s side this time.
Scotland have nine points from four fixtures, two more than Ukraine, and will host Ireland on Saturday before another meeting with Ukraine in Poland next week in their final Group B1 fixture when promotion to Group A could be on the line.
A win against Stephen Kenny’s men will be enough to top the group for the Scots this weekend – provided Ukraine drop points against Armenia – while two draws would also suffice.
With skipper Andy Robertson out injured, Clarke was glad to have fit-again Kieran Tierney back for his first Scotland appearance since March.
There were two more changes from the 4-1 away win over Armenia in their last outing with midfielder Ryan Christie and defender Scott McKenna coming back into the side.
Some booing accompanied the minute’s applause ahead of the game in memory of the Queen, patron of the Scottish Football Association, before a confident and pacey Ukraine side began the match in a threatening manner, stretching the home defence with a series of through balls.
However, in the 11th minute Scotland’s lone striker Adams had a strike on goal from 16 yards saved by goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin albeit the offside flag went up, erroneously, according to replays.
Then a Christie cut-back from the left found no takers but it at least sparked some life into the Tartan Army.
The home side looked to have settled. McGinn and Christie both headed efforts over the bar before Trubin spilled a shot from Armstrong but Christie could not get hold of the rebound.
There was a blow for the Scots in the 25th minute when Nathan Patterson, who had picked up a knee injury, was replaced by Brentford’s Aaron Hickey.
The Everton right-back was taken away on a stretcher with Ukraine coach Petrakov going over to offer support.
A brutal ‘last man’ bodycheck by Valeriy Bondar on Adams just before the break earned the defender only a yellow card from referee Maurizio Mariani to the anger of the Scotland supporters.
Bondar was booed whenever he touched the ball after the break but there was little else to exercise the Tartan Army until the 57th minute, when a powerful Armstrong drive from a Tierney cut-back tested Trubin.
The Southampton midfielder then latched on to a Scott McTominay back heel but blasted his shot high over the bar.
Then Adams missed two glorious chances, heading a McGinn cross against the crossbar before Trubin somehow stopped a header from another delivery from the Aston Villa skipper.
In the 68th minute Armstrong directed a header from an Adams cross past the post from eight yards and just when frustrations threatened to boil over, McGinn took charge.
As a loose ball came towards him at the edge of the Ukraine penalty area, the former Hibernian midfielder used his strength to take control of the ball and drill it low into the far corner.
Adams and Armstrong were replaced by Fraser and Dykes before Trubin had to scramble across his goal to push a Tierney shot wide.
The two substitutes then combined from the corner for Scotland’s second, Fraser’s corner from the left headed in by Dykes.
And with four minutes remaining, Dykes sensationally headed in again from another Fraser corner to clinch three valuable points.
The answer isn’t to get more player from non-rugby playing schools, it’s to get more schools playing rugby.
The GAA have done wonders in getting into every small town and village in the country, that’s what the IRFU need to be doing. Having at least one senior club representing each large town in the country and provide funding and assistance to local schools to coach the sport and provide facilities for them to play in.
It’s a costly and long road to bring up grass roots, but getting the sport into more schools, non-fee paying schools is the way to go. The success of clubs such as Tallaght have opened up a massive new area for rugby to operate in, where traditionally it hasn’t received much attention, and it’s no coincidence that Leinster go out there for pre-season games and training days, as Tallaght is nearly the population of Limerick and is almost entirely untapped until recently.
Not one single senior club in the south east(bar tipp). People have to go looking elsewhere to play a decent standard of rugby
Wonder why the Ulster Ravens do not play matches at community club venues such as Derry City, Ards or Carrick ?
Community schools in Ulster are roughly half the size and in some cases a quarter of the size of Schools Cup playing schools. With half the numbers and a predisposition towards soccer or gaa competitive rugby is developed around a team of 15, immediately reducing the numbers of schools that can put out a team. Where is the Ulster equivalent of this http://www.newquaysurf7s.co.uk/rugby/devon-and-cornwall-youth-sevens-series/ ? Why does the Ulster branch not send a community schools development team to this http://www.rpns7.co.uk/p/schedule? Why does the Ulster youth development squad not enter the http://www.portugalrugbyfestival.com? With many different approaches to development of players from community schools, why is there no innovation to address the obstacles?
Is it fair to compare the GAA & IRFU in the sense that every penny the GAA makes goes back into the game whereas the IRFU are professional and pay elite players & fund their assets? Did the IRFU even make a profit last year?
Professionalism is not synonymous with strategic development. Where are the World Cup packages for the teachers and volunteer coaches who provide the most Academy players ?
No club in the south east? New ross, enniscorthy and wexford wanderers must be the other south east so.
If you look at Leinster a majority of schools are already competing in the main cups, development cups. What needs to be done is get more clubs playing and getting more numbers into the clubs. The club game is where we can truly get the numbers going.
The IRFU never has done enough around the country at developing the game.
We need to get to the stage of having a club representing each large town in the country before we are looking at having a senior club in each large town in the country. We dont have a club in every town as it is so flood towns(and some cities) with mini rugby clubs and then they progress to youths clubs and then we have adult clubs
There is already funding and assistance going to local schools in coaching the sport through the development officers that clubs and IRFU fund.
It is a costly and long road to build up the grassroots but we already have clubs across the country and many of them are dying to get more numbers into their grounds at all levels.
Tallaght are doing great work but theyre 1 club in a hugely populated area. Why did the IRFU not do much more about areas like Tallaght years ago?
The southern hemisphere have done very little to spread rugby, they have Tonga, Fiji and Samoa knocking on the door and they won’t even travel to them for a friendly. Underage level in clubs in thriving the problem starts when these kids hit school and winning ugly becomes everything, when they finish school they don’t want to play anymore, anyone not on a Munster Schools team is seen as a failure, lots of talented kids are slipping through the cracks
Underage is thriving in some areas but not enough is being done in so many areas. How do we only have 2 adult clubs in the city of Waterford? We have a new mini club recently in Tramore but why dont we have several mini rugby clubs in Waterford so eventually we have several clubs in the city.
We need to alter the overbearing focus on the u16 and u19, junior/senior schools cups? There is plenty of kids who go from the day they enter secondary school to the day they leave without ever playing for a club and when they give up at third level nobody notices. If they at least had strong enough links with a club there would be something/someone who would be on look out for them to continue playing into the adult game
Part of the problem lies with how the restructuring of the European competitions has been handled in the last 18 months. Pure greed drove the restructuring. And the way clubs like Toulon are prioritising things is also pretty gross. It’s up to the IRB to prevent this getting worse. And that’s before the television rights mess is brought into it.
I’m actually pretty impressed with how the IRFU has been handling things recently. But they do need to do a lot more to bring the game to a wider audience.
Would there be potential for teams from Georgia and Romania to enter the Pro 12 ?
Either through a second tier competition or expanding the competition? In which case, it wouldn’t be the Pro12 any more. I think that could be kinda difficult to implement, but then I don’t have anything to do with the IRB, so I dunno the ins and outs of it.
In the article it quotes Super Rugby as an 18 club tournament, when not so long ago it was 12 club tournament. If the Top 14 and Premiership are going after the TV monies, what is the Pro12 going to do to secure its share ?
Fergal Cleary and Jeremy Loughmane are more products of the youths pathway Navan and Athy respectively. Leinster Rugby while far from perfect is doing a good job at identifying talent from outside the traditional schools. A quick look through the Academy entrants over the last few years will show a marked increase in the variety of clubs and schools been represented.
Yes but both played for Clongowes and Blackrock
Did I say different, there is no perfect model for talent identification. Both were with their clubs until 16 and then an opportunity arose to attend a top rugby playing school. The rugby culture and environment in those 2 schools is conducive to to allow players fulfil their potential. It’s something we will probably see more of, the clubs nuture, the province identifies and the school polishes off.
Chicken and egg scenario, lots of kids who show talent at Club level or at a minor Rugby school get hoovered up by or helped into the major schools by their provinces. They’re like (Rugby) finishing schools for these players who are being pushed to find another level.
There’s definitely more being done for kids outside the Big Schools too as most provinces have talent identifaction and development schemes in place for a couple of years…
But while those lads were lucky to get the opportunity to attend such schools. How many kids who are talented enough at rugby have parents are able to afford the fees to attend schools like Clongowes or Blackrock?
That in no way is good for Irish Rugby? Rugby has an image of being elitist in this country and having Blackrock/Clongowes as finishing schools just reinforces that. We need to expand the sport and not keep the door closed to a certain few.
Its not good enough that these schools are finishing schools. We need to be bigger and better than that for the sport to truly grow to be played by as many kids and teens and adults as possible
I think the 30 players from ‘fee paying schools’ statistic is widely inaccurate and shows an element of reverse prejudice towards the sport which has long been overly prevalent. At a quick glance at the 10 Munster players in relevant u19 squad: 4 went to ‘fee paying rugby schools’, 4 went to non-fee paying ‘rugby schools’, one played for a youths club and one is a product of the exiles. As someone has pointed out above Sullivan Upper is not a fee paying school either. It is true that a large proportion of the traditional rugby schools across the country are fee paying but it is not exclusive to these schools and the public perception as such is a contributory negative factor in the ‘exclusion’ of players from less traditional backgrounds. In Limerick the top 4 rugby schools are ‘non-fee paying’ (ASR, Crescent, Munchins and Castletroy) while Nessans and Clements also regularly produce teams. The club game while decimated in recent years has also long been the strong-hold of rugby in Limerick specifically and remains the initial port of call for any young kids from any background. Clubs like St.Mary’s have traditionally been competitive with the larger clubs like Garryowen at underage level.
Of the Irish 23 that was named vs South Africa, 5 went to non-fee paying ‘rugby schools’, 5 ‘went to non-traditional rugby schools’ (I am not sure about the status of fees in Marist, St.Colmans or Royal Armagh?), 5 are non-nationals and 8 went to ‘traditional fee paying schools’.
Inaccurate coverage like the above article only serve to perpetuate the myth that in order to play rugby you have to go to a ‘traditional fee paying school’. Clearly that is the largest route at present (specifically in Dublin) but it is certainly not the only port of call and as can be seen from Limericks example the sport can be as inclusive as soccer if the clubs and schools take an equal footing.
Rugby is a unique sport in that it requires a lot of organisation to allow a match to take place-it is difficult to create a ‘kick-about’ scenario without referees and 15 specifically positioned players and as such some structures are necessary to allow this happen. It is often the ‘traditional schools’ that have these established structures in place.
I firmly believe the problem with underage development in Irish rugby lies in our over-reliance on a positional game from a very young age. Pudgey 10 year olds are sent into the front row and ‘lanky’ ones into the second row regardless of their footballing ability or natural athletic ability and it is surprising how rarely they move out of this. Then any player who does show any promise is immediately forced to play 7 or 10. The games almost always revolve around the biggest players on the pitch running through or the faster players running around others and ball handling ability etc. rarely take focus. I am not sure what the solution is but I know that in NZ kids grow up playing a mix of Union, League and tipper and I believe this gives them the varied skill set necessary to form their all-round players. It is the reason they are so good – their players rarely get exploited out of position as they are never really out of position. Their second rows are as comfortable filling into the centre when necessary as their props are giving a skip pass if needed and their wingers will take down a number 8, because they gained the necessary basic skill sets at a young age, by playing the game. Try scoring opportunities rarely go amiss as everyone can fill in when necessary, whereas there is panic across the nation if Mike Ross is forced to touch the ball. This shoe-horning of young players in my opinion is to the detriment of their development and enjoyment of the game (and don’t even get me started on the kids who spend most weekends sitting on the bench) and is the reason for the high drop off rate of teens, etc.
Apologies the above is a bit of an illegible rant but hopefully there are a few pertinent points in there somewhere….
A number of good points there, suggest you look at the links above. Suggested sevens rugby to develop all round rugby skills. With the Olympics now including sevens rugby at Youth level. It would be a huge incentive to offer youth rugby players the opportunity of an Olympic experience. While the general public outside the game of rugby, may not see rugby tournaments as significantly interesting in their own right. Outside of the Soccer World Cup, the Olympics has to be biggest sporting showcase for the general public interest and possibly the biggest draw for those as yet unknown future Ireland rugby players.
Point of clarification Simon- Sullivan Upper is not a fee paying school as you suggest. Indeed it could not even be described as a tradionally successful rugby school, with the exception of some good progress in the last couple of years. ..
That happens a lot in limerick if you show promises your sent to a rugby school.
Castletroy school is the 1st to break the mould introduced a rugby program and are doing very well out of it.
I think the 30 players from ‘fee paying schools’ statistic is widely inaccurate and shows an element of reverse prejudice towards the sport. At a quick glance at the 10 Munster players in that u19 squad 4 went to ‘fee paying rugby schools’, 4 went to public ‘rugby schools’, one played for a youths club and one is a product of the exiles. As someone has pointed out above Sullivan Upper is not a fee paying school either. It is true that a large proportion of the traditional rugby schools across the country are fee paying but it is not exclusive to these schools and the public perception as such is a contributory negative factor in the ‘exclusion’ of players from less traditional backgrounds. In Limerick the top 4 rugby schools are ‘non-fee paying’ (ASR, Crescent, Munchins and Castletroy) while Nessans and Clements also regularly produce teams. The club game while descemated in recent years has also long been the strong-hold of rugby in Limerick specifically and remains the initial port of call for any young kids from any background. Clubs like St.Mary’s have traditionally been competitive with the larger clubs like Garryowen at underage level.
Of the Irish 23 that was named vs South Africa, 5 went to non-fee paying ‘rugby schools’, 5 ‘went to non-traditional rugby schools’ (I am not sure about the stratus of fees in Marist, St.Colmans or Royal Armagh?), 5 are non-nationals and 8 went to ‘traditional fee paying schools’.
Inaccurate coverage like the above article only serve to perpetuate the myth that in order to play rugby you have to go to a ‘traditional fee paying school’. Clearly that is the largest route at present (specifically in Dublin) but it is certainly not the only port of call and as can be seen from Limericks example the sport can be as inclusive as soccer if the clubs and schools take an equal footing.
Rugby is a unique sport in that it requires a lot of organisation to allow a match to take place-it is difficult to create a ‘kick-about’ scenario without referees and 15 specifically positioned players and as such some structures are necessary to allow this happen and as such it is often the ‘traditional schools’ that have these established structures in place.
I firmly believe the problem with underage development in Irish rugby lies on our over-reliance on a positional game from a very young age. Pudgey 10 year olds are sent into the front row regardless of their footballing ability or natural athletic ability and it is surprising how rarely they move out of this. The games almost always revolve around the biggest players on the pitch running through or the faster players running around others and ball handling ability etc. rarely take focus. I am not sure what the solution is but I know that in NZ kids grow up playing a mix of Union, League and tipper and I believe this gives them the varied skill set necessary to form their all-round players. It is the reason they are so good – their players rarely get exploited out of position as they are never really out of position. Their second rows are as comfortable filling into the centre when necessary as their props are giving a skip pass if needed, because they gained the necessary basic skill sets at a young age.
Japan is a lucrative market while Georgia and Romania aren’t. If we’re praising the southern hemisphere for what they’ve done for expanding the game rather than chasing investment out of financial greed then maybe the treatment of the pacific islands and how included those iconic rugby mad yet financially poor islands are into their ambitious plans is what should be focused on.
Same ol story with the Irish rugby hierarchy, …..class distinction comes before talent. Many a good player has been & continues to be bypassed because of a players financial background or from where they come from, never before have there been so many young people playing the sport but who will never have the chance to fulfill their dreams & potential just because of someone else’s snobbery
What a ridiculous statement to make. A coach/club will to win will always overcome these so called prejudices, especially in a competitive environment.Cream will always rise to the top no matter their background. some preconceived notions think that all rugby playing children must produce a silver spoon before they allowed start training.This kind of attitude slows the process of growing the sport in Ireland.
The cream will nearly always rise to the top. In the case of Irish Rugby its nearly because of the unequal balance there is between so much of underage rugby in the country as a whole.
Didn’t Keith earls come through St nessans?
He went to st. Munchies after his junior very
St. Munchin’s even :-)
St Munchin’s even
Ya but he was already showing plenty of promise by then. Bit unfair to go he munchins credit for producing him
If you’re going down that road, Spuds, all credit should go to his mother for producing him. His talent was recognised and refined by St Munchin’s. He’d have spent his formative years there, so it’s largely down to their rugby programme that he developed as a player.
Good points that are not popular to make. The exclusivity of rugby and the unwillingness of the elite to change is its biggest turn off