Wallabies come back with strong second-half performance
Australia finally ended their drought, a run of seven defeats, when they beat Ireland 30-14 at Lansdowne Road in Dublin on Saturday. Coming back from being down 6-3 at half-time, the Wallabies scored 27 second-half points to record their first win in on their year-end tour.
Ireland produced a significant improvement on last Saturday's performance against New Zealand, but it was not enough to prevent them from crashing to the second defeat in their November internationals.
Eddie O'Sullivan's men were desperate to atone for the 45-7 blitz by New Zealand, a display criticised for its lack of passion, while Australia were also desperate to end their seven-match drought.
But while the Irish took a step in the right direction, they still came up well short against an Australian team just more desperate than themselves.
A brace of second-half tries from winger Drew Mitchell and one from Chris Latham saw the Wallabies power to victory and end their seven-match losing streak, keeping the job of under-fire coach Eddie Jones safe for another week.
All eyes were on the Australian scrum following last Saturday's shambles against England, a horror-show former All Black skipper Sean Fitzpatrick described as a "disgrace", but the set-piece never really figured.
Jones had reacted to events at Twickenham by axing Al Baxter in favour of debutant tighthead David Fitter and replacing injured Matt Dunning with Greg Holmes, who won his first Test start in a rookie front row.
But apart from a couple of times when their scrum buckled badly, Australia were able to keep the focus away from the set-piece and in the tight they never took the pounding received from England.
The game was marred by worrying scenes in the 18th minute when veteran lock Malcolm O'Kelly was stretchered off with his neck in a brace, following a ferocious double hit from Lote Tuqiri and Hugh McMeniman.
But there was some good news for Ireland, who crossed through Shane Horgan, in the shape of a promising debut from Ulster centre Andrew Trimble, who looked comfortable on his first outing in the Test arena.
Ireland had been criticised for their tactics against New Zealand as they overlooked their kicking game in favour of a more ambitious running approach, but they had adjusted their approach for Australia.
Geordan Murphy and Ronan O'Gara looked for touch in the opening two minutes when they could have run the ball, but unfortunately both efforts were poor and this set the tone for Ireland's kicking game in general.
Fitter and Simon Easterby traded blows at the breakdown shortly after, but Ireland were awarded the penalty by referee Chris White.
O'Gara found touch and the home side drove the ensuing line-out some 15 metres before White punished Australia for a second time and Ireland's Munster fly-half made no mistake with the three points.
Chris Latham and Matt Rogers threatened Ireland before Gregan dashed over the whitewash from five yards out but there had been an obstruction in the move.
Lansdowne Road was brought to its feet in the 16th minute when Denis Leamy punched a big hole in midfield and found openside Johnny O'Connor, who carried the ball deep into midfield only to lack any support runners.
O'Connor was brought to a halt and the ball eventually found its way to the right line where O'Kelly was hit.
The veteran Leinster second row, Ireland's most capped player, received lengthy treatment before being carried off and replaced by Matt McCullough, with O'Gara missing the ensuing penalty kick.
Australia battered away at their opponents' line in the 26th minute and when Ireland strayed offside, giving Rogers his first shout at goal which he gratefully accepted.
Some Latham back-chat put a penalty chance in O'Gara's range and the fly-half sent his kick between the posts.
Rogers was given a chance to level the score early in the second half after Ireland were caught holding the ball in the tackle and the former rugby league star slotted the three points.
Bowe was released on a promising run down the left but his kick was ineffective and Australia scored on the counter with the television match official required to decide whether Mitchell had grounded the ball correctly after being shoved over the line by his team-mates.
Rogers converted and then saw a switch in his opposite number with David Humphreys replacing O'Gara, and the Ulster fly-half coolly completed the first shot at goal he was given in the 59th minute.
Ireland were trailing just 13-9 going into the final quarter but a dropped pass from McCullough was punished as Latham surged through tackles from Humphreys and O'Connor and outstripped the Irish cover on his run to the line.
Rogers converted but his side were hit by the sin-binning of George Smith for a bad challenge on Peter Stringer.
However, the shortage in manpower made no difference as Mitchell beat off tackles from Trimble, Bowe and Horgan to score in the corner after Humphreys' loose pass was intercepted.
Rogers added the extras but Ireland had not given hope of scoring a try and Horgan obliged in the 77th minute after Murphy had supplied the telling pass, giving Ireland's defeat some respectability on the scoreboard.
The scorers:
For Ireland:
Try: Horgan
Pens: O'Gara 2, Humphreys
For Australia:
Tries: Mitchell 2, Latham
Cons: Rogers 3
Pens: Rogers 3
The teams:
Ireland: 15 Geordan Murphy, 14 Shane Horgan, 13 Andrew Trimble, 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Tommy Bowe, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Denis Leamy 7 Johnny O'Connor, 6 Simon Easterby (c), 5 Malcolm O'Kelly, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 John Hayes, 2 Shane Byrne, 1 Marcus Horan.
Replacements: 16 Rory Best, 17 Simon Best, 18 Matt McCullough, 19 Neil Best, 20 Kieran Campbell, 21 David Humphreys, 22 Girvan Dempsey.
Australia: 15 Chris Latham, 14 Mark Gerrard, 13 Lote Tuqiri, 12 Morgan Turinui, 11 Drew Mitchell, 10 Mat Rogers, 9 George Gregan (c), 8 George Smith, 7 Phil Waugh, 6 John Roe, 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 Hugh McMeniman, 3 David Fitter, 2 Brendan Cannon, 1 Greg Holmes.
Replacements: 16 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 17 Al Baxter, 18 Mark Chisholm, 19 Scott Fava, 20 Matt Henjak, 21 Lloyd Johansson, 22 Wendell Sailor.
Referee: Chris White (England)
Touch judges: Tony Spreadbury (England), Tappe Henning (South Africa)
Television match official: Huw Watkins (Wales)
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