Dramatic draw seals World Cup spot for Ireland

Ireland booked their trip to the 10-team World Cup next year in Australia in the most dramatic fashion today.

Andy Kelly’s heroes snatched a last-gasp draw with Lebanon for the second time in 12 months to finish top of their qualifying group on points difference.

Substitute Chris Bridge, whose injury-time conversion tied the scores at 18-18 in Dublin a year ago, put over a 77th-minute penalty to lock last night’s match up at 16-16.

That ensured automatic qualification for the Irish, who had twice posted half-century scores against Russia, and left Lebanon to fight it out with Samoa, the United States and the losers of tomorrow’s Scotland-Wales clash in Glasgow to decide the 10th place in the main draw via the repechage.

Ireland looked to have secured a smooth passage after converted tries from half-backs Liam Finn and Paul Handforth gave them a 12-4 interval lead.

But the Lebanese produced a strong second-half performance and went in front for the first time on 67 minutes when centre Frank Samia took advantage of a rare defensive blunder from full-back Scott Grix to score his side’s third try.

However, Lebanon consistently let themselves down with their lack of discipline and they were reduced to 12 men when prop Charlie Nohra was sin-binned for the latest in a series of high tackles.

And when Samia produced another high shot on Bridge with four minutes to go, the Warrington stand-off got back up and kicked the crucial goal.

“I’ve been involved with the Irish coaching set-up since 2000 and qualifying for the World Cup sits amongst the highest honours I’ve ever achieved in the game,” said Kelly.

“I’m immensely proud of what we’ve done and what we’ve achieved.”

Meanwhile, the ninth place in the World Cup will be determined at Old Anniesland tomorrow when Wales seek to overturn a seven-point deficit from their first meeting with the Scots in Bridgend.