Inspirational captain Brian O’Driscoll crowned his 100th Test match for Ireland and the Lions with a dramatic late try – his fifth in his last six Tests for Ireland – as Declan Kidney’s men snapped back to grab a 20-20 draw with Australia in the GUINNESS Series opener at Croke Park.
GUINNESS SERIES 2009: Sunday, November 15
IRELAND 20 AUSTRALIA 20, Croke Park
Scorers: Ireland: Tries: Tommy Bowe, Brian O’Driscoll; Cons: Ronan O’Gara 2; Pens: Ronan O’Gara 2
Ireland: Tries: Drew Mitchell, Rocky Elsom; Cons: Matt Giteau 2; Pens: Matt Giteau 2
O2 MatchDay Live – The Match As It Happened
The Irish pounded away at Australia’s line in a nail-biting climax to a thrilling contest and were rewarded by Brian O’Driscoll’s well-executed try off a set scrum.
Ronan O’Gara added the levelling conversion from beneath the posts to deny the Wallabies victory and end the Grand Slam tour ambitions of Robbie Deans’ side.
Former Leinster back rower Rocky Elsom appeared to have won it for Australia upon his return to Dublin when he crossed in the left corner in the 61st minute.
But Ireland refused to concede defeat with Tommy Bowe, who touched down earlier in the second half, almost wriggling over before O’Driscoll, rugby’s newest centurion, made the late breakthrough.
Ireland’s frontliners had not played together since beating Wales in March to complete the Grand Slam with debutant prop Cian Healy and centre Paddy Wallace the only new faces.
Their rustiness showed as early as the third minute when Australia, coming off the back of a Tri Nations campaign and matches against New Zealand and England on successive weekends, surged ahead.
A poor midfield pass by O’Gara led to Ireland leaking a soft try. O’Driscoll tried to stretch and gather the pass but he was immediately tackled, spilling the ball into the path of winger Drew Mitchell who sprinted home to the left of the posts.
The conversion was added by Matt Giteau but O’Gara replied with a penalty and shortly afterwards, Ireland were on the front foot when Healy charged down Giteau’s drop goal attempt.
Giteau then missed a penalty, preceding a superb passage of play by the Irish who repeatedly worked the ball across the line until Paddy Wallace, whose distribution and angled running was top notch, ran out of support.
Australia scrambled frantically to give Mitchell support after the winger was hurled backwards by a swarm of green shirts chasing Luke Fitzgerald’s chip ahead.
The tide had turned in Ireland’s favour but with O’Gara and Giteau exchanging penalties, the scoreboard still belonged to the Wallabies who soon set about reasserting themselves on the pitch.
Elsom brought memories of last season’s Heineken Cup flooding back when he set off on a 30-yard break, starting a move that ended with Rob Kearney’s try-saving tackle on Giteau.
Kearney did brilliantly to stop the Wallaby out-half but minutes later, he was on the receiving end when he was flattened by Wycliff Palu.
Referee Jonathan Kaplan decided that Palu had not used his arms when trying to make a thumping tackle on the advancing Irish full-back and sent the powerful Wallaby number 8 to the sin-bin.
Thankfully for Ireland, Giteau sent a second penalty wide as Australia made a brisk start to the second half.
Scrum half Tomas O’Leary was penalised for feeding at the scrum and this time Giteau obliged with the three points.
Undaunted by Australia opening up a 13-6 lead, Ireland responded beautifully by scoring almost immediately.
From the restart, the impressive Healy came up with possession and marauded into space, taking the Irish within 20 yards of the whitewash.
They battered away at the line with Stephen Ferris and David Wallace making telling runs before Bowe eventually crashed over with O’Gara converting to tie up the game at 13-13.
The Six Nations champions staged another lightning strike but came away with nothing and next it was Australia’s turn to attack, Giteau and Quade Cooper firing miss passes to Elsom who barged over on the left corner.
Giteau brilliantly made the tricky touchline conversion, but after that it was all one-way traffic as the Wallabies were subjected to a ferocious late onslaught.
Bowe made it over the whitewash with two minutes to go but the television match official Geoff Warren decided that winger Peter Hynes had got his arms around the ball.
Nonetheless, Ireland could not be denied seconds later, a slick pass from O’Leary sending O’Driscoll sweeping in behind the posts with O’Gara converting to level with the last kick of the hard-fought match.
TIME LINE: 3 minutes – Australia try: Drew Mitchell – 0-5; conversion: Matt Giteau – 0-7; 6 mins – Ireland penalty: Ronan O’Gara – 3-7; 16 mins – Australia penalty: missed by Matt Giteau – 3-7; 22 mins – Ireland penalty: Ronan O’Gara – 6-7; 25 mins – Australia penalty: Matt Giteau – 6-10; 30 mins – Wycliff Palu (dangerous tackle); Half-time – Ireland 6 Australia 10; 45 mins – Australia penalty: missed by Matt Giteau – 6-10; 55 mins – Australia penalty: Matt Giteau – 6-13; 57 mins – Ireland try: Tommy Bowe – 11-13; conversion: Ronan O’Gara – 13-13; 61 mins – Australia try: Rocky Elsom – 13-18; conversion: Matt Giteau – 13-20; 80 mins – Ireland try: Brian O’Driscoll – 18-20; conversion: Ronan O’Gara – 20-20; Full-time – Ireland 20 Australia 20
IRELAND: Rob Kearney; Tommy Bowe, Brian O’Driscoll (capt), Paddy Wallace, Luke Fitzgerald; Ronan O’Gara, Tomas O’Leary; Cian Healy, Jerry Flannery, John Hayes, Donncha O’Callaghan, Paul O’Connell, Stephen Ferris, David Wallace, Jamie Heaslip.
Replacements used: Keith Earls for Fitzgerald (54 mins, inj), Denis Leamy for Wallace (61-65, blood sub), Denis Leamy for Ferris (76). Not used: Sean Cronin, Tom Court, Leo Cullen, Eoin Reddan, Jonathan Sexton..
AUSTRALIA: Adam Ashley-Cooper; Peter Hynes, Digby Ioane, Quade Cooper, Drew Mitchell; Matt Giteau, Will Genia; Benn Robinson, Stephen Moore, Ben Alexander, James Horwill, Mark Chisolm, Rocky Elsom (capt), David Pocock, Wycliff Palu.
Replacements used: George Smith for Pocock (21-29 mins, blood sub), Tatafu Polota Nau for Moore (62), James O’Connor for Ashley-Cooper (69). Not used: Matt Dunning, Dean Mumm, Luke Burgess, Ryan Cross.
Referee: Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa)
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