RWC MatchDay Live: Ireland v Australia
The excitement is building ahead of Ireland’s crunch clash with Australia in Rugby Word Cup Pool C. You can keep up-to-date with today’s game via our RWC MatchDay Live service right here on IrishRugby.ie.
RWC MatchDay Live – Click Here
Brian O’Driscoll, who made his Ireland debut against Australia back in June 1999, is hoping to guide the men in green to their second victory in the 2011 tournament.
Declan Kidney’s selected team includes three World Cup debutants. They are all members of Leinster’s Heineken Cup-winning side from last season – full-back Rob Kearney, prop Cian Healy and flanker Sean O’Brien.
The only other change in personnel from the American game is the return of scrum half Eoin Reddan, who played at the 2007 World Cup in France.
Ireland have played 12 Tests so far on New Zealand soil, winning just two of those games. They beat Canada 46-19 in Dunedin at the inaugural World Cup in 1987, and ran out 22-10 winners over the USA last Sunday.
Their record against the Australia reads: played 29, won 8, lost 20 and drew 1. Australia have won all four previous World Cup encounters with Ireland.
The Irish have lost to the Wallabies by one point on two occasions (19-18 in the quarter-finals in 1991 and 17-16 in the pool stages in 2003).
The match that finished 17-16 eight years ago was the last meeting between these two at the World Cup. Dan Vickerman came on as a replacement for Australia and O’Driscoll, Ronan O’Gara, Paul O’Connell and Donncha O’Callaghan played in that match for Ireland.
We will have live text commentary direct from Eden Park in Auckland. Plug in the laptop or turn on the PC and enjoy a flavour of tonight’s match live on IrishRugby.ie.
There will be full live text and score updates throughout the coverage as Ireland look to make it two wins out of two in Pool C and beat one of the Southern Hemisphere’s big three for the first time since November 2009.
There is live TV coverage of the match on RTÉ Two, Setanta Sports Ireland and UTV. There will also be highlights on a number of channels later in the day, including TG4.
Michael Corcoran will also be doing live commentary of the game on RTÉ Radio 1, with their coverage beginning 20 minutes before kick-off.
Starting at 8pm NZ time/9am Irish time with our pre-match build-up (the game kicks off at 8.30pm NZ time/9.30am Irish time), you can feel part of the action on IrishRugby.ie with MatchDay Live.
Look out for the MatchDay Live button in the Ireland section or simply click on the link below:
RWC MatchDay Live – Click Here
Follow the Ireland team in New Zealand on www.twitter.com/irfurugby.