IRELAND suffered a serious setback to their World Cup plans when they went down by 179 runs to Scotland in Sydney.

It was the heaviest ever defeat to the Scots in a limited overs match.

“We're still on track”, insisted captain William Porterfield but he must have been alarmed how quickly and lamely his team folded just five days before the opening game against West Indies.

The Scots were allowed to score 296-6 off their 50 overs, with 106 coming off the last ten. Max Sorensen was the best of the bowlers with 3-55.

Ireland started well in reply, with Porterfield (23) and Paul Stirling (37) racking up 57 for the first wicket.

But English-born Alisdair Evans came on and within 11 balls had taken four wickets for three runs.

Only Gary Wilson (15) made double figures as Ireland were routed for 117.

The lowest ODI score they have ever made against as associate is 163 so luckily this 13 v 13 game won't appear in the record books.

Also yesterday, Ireland's most capped player Andrew White announced his international retirement.

White, who played 231 times for Ireland is likely to be overtaken shortly by Kevin O'Brien (229).

"It had been my ambition to finish my International career at the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in the coming weeks, however, suffering a compound fracture of my right index finger in September meant that this was unfortunately not going to be possible”, White said.

White scored 4,560 runs at an average of 27.8 including six centuries, and took 125 wickets at 27.63.

"Whitey has been a great ambassador for Irish cricket both on and off the field, where he has been a superb role model for the younger members of the team”, said Phil Simmons.

"He rarely let his team down and it's no coincidence that he was involved in so many key moments in Ireland's triumphs over the years.”