Tohill relieved after tight finish

Ireland manager Anthony Tohill was a relieved man after his side avoided an Aussie whitewash with a strong final quarter performance in last night's International Rules first Test at Limerick's Gaelic Grounds.

The hosts trailed by 18 points with seven minutes left on the clock, but salvaged something from a potentially disappointing performance as Footballer of the Year Bernard Brogan kickstarted a strong Irish finish with the only goal of the contest.

It means Ireland just have a seven-point deficit - 47-40 - to overcome heading into the final game at Croke Park next Saturday.

"The goal might just have saved the Series (for us). I think if we hadn't got it, we were in a pretty bad position," conceded Tohill afterwards.

"We really needed that goal. I think we were 20 points down at the time, playing not the way we wanted to play to put it mildly.

"It brought us into it, it brought the crowd into it and it led to us getting a bit of a strong run at it at the end of the game to leave the Series alive, to leave us coming out of a massive hole we were in.

"We are sitting nicely now knowing that we have played quite poorly. I think it sets us up nicely now for the second Test."

The Derry native conceded that his charges seemed to be riddled by nerves in the opening stages, and it took a long time for the team to settle.

"We seemed to be very nervous, we seemed to be very jittery in possession. We made a lot of mistakes, a lot more mistakes than we would like to have made.

"It took us a long time to find our feet in the game and credit to Australia for the way they played, they made it very, very difficult for us.

"Our lads showed at the end of the fourth quarter what they can do when they put their minds to it.

"They pushed on and credit to them. They showed a lot of pride and passion at the end of the game and got us out of the hole."

Meanwhile, Australia coach Mick Malthouse was happy with his side's display, despite that late flourish from Ireland.

"It's just an idiosyncrasy of the game. There can be quick scoring, there can be a rush. I thought the boys settled very well," he said.

"Once the under (goal) was scored, the crowd got involved. I still thought we had enough control of the ball so we could win the game.

"There's always a tendency to overload your back half, but I think sometimes that's a panic and we just backed our forwards to stay where they were and backed our midfielders to get the ball to them."

Brogan led the scoring for Ireland on the night, with a goal and an over for nine points. He was closely followed by Irish captain Steven McDonnell (8) and Sean Cavanagh (6). Australian skipper Adam Goodes led by example for his side with four overs for a 12-point tally.