Even allowing for the late change, there was a poor crowd to watch a match rich in talent, including several Borderers, but it was Heriot’s Jason Hill, who won the game with a superb score 10 minutes from the end and collected the Man-of-the-Match award.

Hill collected the ball inside his own half and barged his way the length of the rest of the field for the try.

Graham Wilson, his Heriot’s club-mate, added the conversion for a personal tally of 13 points to add to his conversion of Ross Weston’s touchdown to give the Scots a deserved win against a spirited Irish side.

The Irish showed early aggression, but the Scots held out to take the lead with a 10th minute penalty by Wilson.

Ireland were soon back in the Scottish ’22. And they were rewarded after several thrusts to the line when No. 8 Jonathan Slattery took a quick free kick to drive over the line and Darragh Lyons converted for a 7-3 lead.

Fraser Thomson twice injected pace into the attack only to be halted by the Irish defence. Astute kicking to touch kept the hosts before a combined Thomson-Scott McLeod move forced Ireland to carry the ball over its own line, and from the scrum, Weston drove over and Wilson converted.

But three minutes from the interval, Lyons levelled with a penalty, and from the restart, Ireland swung the ball across the field through several pairs of hands and Mark Roche drove over for a 15-10 lead at the interval.

On the restart, Wilson cut the deficit with a penalty, but Ireland continued to dominate despite losing Paul Pritchard to the sin-bin and allowed Wilson to add the penalty to be followed later by a Lyons penalty and Thomson yellow card.

But Hill’s amazing try and Wilson’s conversion was the icing on a Scotland cake, which they hope to carry on into Blackpool against England in the second game.

Scotland: F. Thomson; C. Gossman, L. Steele, R. Curle, S. McLeod; S. Edwards, G. Wilson; N. Beavon, R. Anderson, S. Cessford, R. Nimmo, I. Moody, J. Hill, W. Bordill, R. Weston. Replacements: F. Scott, E. McQuillin, S. Muir, P. Eccles, T. Spinks, G. Graham, C. Auld, G. McNeish.