Boys' Home Internationals: When Wales's Adam Runcie went to replace his ball on the 17th green after marking, and couldn't keep it on the spot because of a wind whistling over Howth Head, it gave some indication of the weather here yesterday.

Still, Runcie sank the 20-foot putt to close out Ireland's Andrew Pitcher, of The Island, for a 2 and 1 win in the final match on the course and push Ireland into fourth place overall.

It was a disappointing end to a week that promised much but delivered the wooden spoon for Ireland, and they must regroup quickly for the British Boys Championship at Conway, in Wales, to which they travel to today.

In difficult conditions, yesterday was very much a question of Ireland fading over the final three holes of the afternoon singles after coming out of the morning foursomes 3-2 ahead.

Even as late in the match as the 15th hole, the home team was up in five of the 10 singles matches and all square in one, but they managed to unravel in the closing three or four holes, as Wales went on to win six matches and halve one. Teams just can't afford to lose par-five holes to triple bogeys, which occurred on the 16th in one of the matches.

"Hugely disappointing," said captain Ciarán Burke. "The final three holes cost us the match. Against Scotland, we lost on the back nine in the foursomes and singles. In this match, the last three or four holes was when it began to slip."

Ironically, Chris Hughes, from Royal Portrush, won all six matches in which he was involved but is not part of the team travelling to Conway because his handicap was fractionally too high at the time of selection.

In that competition yesterday's winners England will arrive with some confidence, having won again with maximum points.

Blazing a trail, England beat Scotland for their seventh successive victory. Other than England, only Ireland at Royal North Devon in 1997 have managed to keep it for a year since the format was changed in 1996.

England went into the afternoon singles four up and had won the competition before their three tail players arrived in the clubhouse, finally beating Scotland 11½ to 3½.