Ireland Under 17 coach Ryan Eagleson was clearly in an ebullient mood after seeing his charges crush their Scottish counterparts by 9 wickets to claim the European Championships.

Chasing a modest Scottish total of 195, Stuart Thompson (97*), and Andrew Balbirnie(85) shared an opening stand of 176 to ensure the outcome was never in doubt.

Earlier the Irish spinners, with 16 year old left armer George Dockrell in particular, had strangled the life out of the Scottish innings, after they had been given a whirlwind start by the opening pair of Oliver Hairs and Freddie Coleman.

Once skipper Lee Nelson accounted for Hairs (17), quickly followed by the wickets of Coleman (42), and Bailwal (0) - both victims of Graham McDonnell- the momentum of the innings was lost. Indeed although Sam Hunt (44) and Richie Lamb (24) added 70 for the 4th wicket, it was an attritional effort taking 30 overs.

Dockrell (4-26) continues to flourish, and Lee Nelson, Paul Stirling, and Andrew Balbirnie all kept a tight grip on the proceedings after the seamers had been initially costly.

The ease with which the runs were scored meant that there were no nerves for the watching home crowd, and the only minor disappointments were that the margin of victory wasn't 10 wickets, and Thompson and Balbirnie missed out on centuries.

Balbirnie is all about timing and placement, and oozed class. Thompson too showed great composure, and displayed a full range of strokes, cutting, driving and pulling with great power.

Ryan Eagleson reflected, "I thought Andy Balbirnie and Stuart Thompson were absolutely outstanding today. They rotated the strike well and didn't let their bowlers settle. The right/left hand combination worked well, and they put away every bad ball that came their way."

"In the bowling department, George Dockrell is a great talent and at 16 will get even better. I'm sure that the influence of Matt Dwyer (Ireland Under 19 Coach) will be a great help to him. Paul Stirling, Lee Nelson and Andy Balbirnie all did well today. In our other games Nick Donnell and Shane Getkate were the main men, so all contributed to this championship win."

"I thought out fielding throughout the competition was superb. The standards we set ourselves are high, and we came up to them. The passion and intensity never dipped, and we were able to put the opposition under great pressure. We have great depth to this squad, and players who are 6, 7,8 in the order are regular top 4 players in Senior One clubs throughout the country. Shane Getkate for example didn't need to bat all week. It's fair to say that we could reverse the order in this team without making too much of a difference."

"This is I suppose the jewel in the crown of all our under age teams at present. I wouldn't be surprised if 6 or 7 of this team doesn't go on to win full international honours."

Eagleson did concede that the seam bowling was one area that could be improved, but reckons that there are some real exciting prospects in the current Irish youth ranks, "I've been very impressed by Craig Young and Eddie Richardson, who I saw play against The MCC, and they have real potential. It is fair to say, that seam bowling is one area that we have been short this last few years. Nick Donnell and Andy Britton have got a bit of raw pace, and could make it. I think the bowling suffers in comparison with our batting, where we seem to have an endless array of talent coming through, and long may it continue!"

What did Eagleson attribute the continued dominance of Ireland at the Under age levels to? "I was speaking to Craig Wright about this, and it seems that our guys are all playing Senior One cricket a lot earlier than in other countries, where they tend to be involved in Schools cricket. Our guys are tougher and battle hardened at an earlier stage in their careers. This tough cricket, where they are playing with and against seasoned players and overseas professionals helps their development enormously. We have obviously got goood coaching and academy structures in place, but there's no substitute for actual playing experience. It puts them in good stead for these competitions, which I feel aren't as high a standard as Senior One cricket.I reckon that's why we have the competitive edge in these tournaments"

Did Eagleson feel Ireland should mimic what Scotland have done and enter the Under 19 side into Senior competitions? "I don't think it would work here, as I can see too many conflicts with club v country. I really don't see the need as all our players are influential players at their Senior One clubs, and the standard is sufficiently high. I don't think that was the case with Scotland, which is why they are experimenting with it."