Dubai Sevens: Ireland finished as runners up in the Dubai Sevens shield final after losing the fourth-tier competition 17-5 to Tunisia, the winners earlier this year of the African qualifying tournament.

The Irish side produced their worst performance of the tournament, with a display that was littered with defensive errors. "We missed too many tackles" said Ireland coach Ryan Constable, the former Ulster and Saracens back.

He added : "They scored twice off missed tackles and that left us trailing by 10 points at the break. Our defensive system was fine but it was those tackles that were costly. We will have to look carefully at the videos of our games before we play in South Africa next weekend."

Ireland were able to post a try - scored by Tomás O'Leary - but it was much too late in the second half to have any impact on the game. But in defeat Ireland can take much from their attacking play and, in particular, the form of outhalf Ian Humphreys.

Earlier, Ireland had gone into the Bowl quarter-final against Kenya feeling confident after an impressive first day and it seemed the Irish would continue where they left off as they went into a 12-0 lead with tries by Mark Bruce and Niall Ronan and a conversion by Humphreys.

But a try on either side of the break brought Kenya back into the contest, only for Ireland to pull away again when Bruce crossed under the posts. Humphreys converted.

But as Ireland tired the Africans piled on the pressure to score three late tries for a 29-19 win, the result putting Ireland into the semi-final of the fourth-tier competition, the Shield.

In that game, Ireland built up an interval lead of 17-5 with two tries from James Norton and one from Humphreys.

But the Irish then had to fend off a charge by the Canadians who ran in two tries on either side of a touchdown from Mark Bruce.

IRELAND SQUAD: G Brown (Ulster/Belfast Harlequins), M Bruce (Loughborough University), J Hearty (Leinster/Blackrock), D Hewitt (Leinster/Clontarf), I Humphreys (Belfast Harlequins), S Mallon (Ulster/Dungannon), M McComish (Ballymena), M McPhail (Munster /Bohemians), J Norton (Leinster/UCD), N O'Brien (Connacht), T O'Leary (Dolphin), N Ronan (Leinster/Lansdowne)

DUBAI SEVENS RESULTS: Emirates Trophy Quarter-finals: New Zealand 31 Scotland 0; Fiji 14 Samoa 7; Argentina 12 South Africa 19; England 24 Australia 5. Semi-finals: New Zealand 12 Fiji 22; England 14 South Africa 5. Final: Fiji 21 England 26. Plate Semi-finals: Scotland 15 Samoa 33; Argentina 24 Australia 19. Final: Samoa 21 Argentina 19. Bowl Quarter-finals: Canada 14 France 17; Ireland 19 Kenya 29; Tunisia 0 Portugal 5; Uganda 21 Arabian Gulf 14. Semi-finals: France 17 Kenya 7; Portugal 38 Uganda 0. Final: France 5 Portugal 10. Shield Semi-finals: Canada 17 Ireland 24; Tunisia 31 Arabian Gulf 0. Final: Ireland 5 Tunisia 17