Reward for guts and character

IRISH guts and character made up for a series of very apparent shortcomings at Croke Park yesterday.

A brilliantly taken try by the imperious Brian O’Driscoll off a glorious Tomás O’Leary pass and converted by Ronan O’Gara enabled the Six Nations Grand Slam champions to force a 20-all draw with Tri-Nations wooden spoonists Australia and it was an outcome they just about deserved.

It was a dismally poor game for the first 50 minutes and not a whole lot better after that. But at least there was the excitement and tension of the final half hour during which time three tries were scored, with most of the 69,668 crowd going home in reasonably happy frame of mind thanks to the late, late reprieve.