Ruaraidh Hart insists Scotland U20s can be proud of their performance in Cork despite a 36-0 defeat against Ireland.

The Glasgow Warriors lock believes his side showed great physicality and energy but they just couldn’t keep Ireland at bay and eventually crumbled under significant pressure from the home side as they chased a bonus point.

They battled well in the first half and kept Ireland to just a 7-0 lead with Hugo McLaughlin scoring in the 20th minute. It took until a penalty from Jack Murphy on 50 for the Irish to extend their advantage but then Evan O’Connell’s try on 60 minutes opened the floodgates.

Monroe Job was shown a yellow card just two minutes after coming on and Ireland added another try while he was in the bin with Danny Sheahan getting his first of the night. Sean Edogbo then secured the bonus point but the Irish weren’t stopping there and got their fifth of the night while the clock was red.

READ MORE: Ireland 36-0 Scotland: U20s suffer further Six Nations defeat

Sheahan was again the man who crossed the line and it meant Scotland finished the tournament with five defeats from five and they couldn’t manage to get on the scoresheet at all in Cork.

But Hart was still proud of his team and believes it’s a good foundation for the World Junior Trophy, which will take place in Scotland in the summer.

He told the BBC: “I think the first half we showed physicality and energy and it was outstanding. Everyone who stepped in the park gave everything.

“It’s just the same story as last week, we lost our energy. The defence was still class but our accuracy in attack let us down.

“We’re massively proud of the physicality we put out but that accuracy we need to find.

“We’ll all go back to our clubs and take some time to recover and hopefully we’ll come back and build and it will give us a bit of fire going forward.

“We’ve stuff to work on but there’s also a good foundation to build on.”