TWO East Lothian stars’ hopes of reaching next year’s Rugby World Cup with Scotland will come down to a winner-takes-all showdown with Ireland.

Victory over Spain means a Scotland win over Ireland will be enough to see them keep the dream alive.

Having lost the first game of the round-robin qualifying tournament in Italy, Bryan Easson’s squad, featuring former North Berwick High School pupils Megan Gaffney and Liz Musgrove, needed a win to have any chance of the required top-two finish.

The Scots did it the hard way, though, and went behind within the opening two minutes before two tries, the second from Gaffney, brought them in front.

Still, it was the Spanish who led 19-17 at the break, but Scotland had the upper hand in the second half to take a nervy 27-22 win.

Results from the opening two rounds of fixtures mean any of Ireland, Spain, Scotland or Italy can still top the group.

The winners go directly to the tournament in New Zealand and the runners-up to the repechage tournament.

“We’re in the fight to go to the World Cup still,” said the Scotland head coach.

“We knew that was a game we had to win.

“We deserved our win. It was desperate at the end, it was tough but I think what it showed was a real squad effort.”

Scotland face Ireland today (Saturday), with the match kicking off at 5pm BST.