Men from Down Under all over leaderboard

Brett Rumford needed only four holes this morning to make it a three-way tie involving three Australians in the Nissan Irish Open at County Louth.

While overnight leaders Peter Lonard and Nick O’Hern had a lie-in following their course-record first day 64s, Rumford birdied the second and fourth and joined them on eight under par.

They were two clear of France’s Christian Cevaer, winner of the Spanish Open in April, and three clear of a group which now included Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher and England’s Simon Wakefield, both of whom resumed with a bogey.

Rumford, like O’Hern from Perth, is only 103rd on the Order of Merit this season and failed to qualify for last week’s Open championship.

His one Tour victory came in last year’s St Omer Open in France while most of the circuit’s stars were away at the US Open.

This week the field is headed by Darren Clarke and Padraig Harrington, although both had six strokes to make up after beginning with two-under-par 70s.