Wallabies' grand slam dream over as Ireland steal dramatic draw

[travelling_gerry]

Australia's grand slam dream is over after a heartbreaking last-minute try to superstar captain Brian O'Driscoll secured Ireland a dramatic 20-20 draw in Dublin.

Celebrating his 100th Test in spectacular style, O'Driscoll sliced through a huge gap in the Wallabies’ midfield to score under the posts.

Referee Jonathan Kaplan blew full-time immediately after Ireland five-eighth Ronan O'Gara drilled the conversion to shatter the Wallabies' hopes of emulating Australia's legendary 1984 tourists who completed the grand slam sweep over England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

After a dream start, with winger Drew Mitchell scoring in the third minute, the Wallabies were never headed and looked like storming Croke Park when inspirational captain Rocky Elsom crashed over in the left-hand corner to break a 13-13 deadlock 18 minutes from time.

The draw, which came on the first anniversary of Ireland's most recent defeat, snapped the Six Nations champions's eight-Test winning streak - but would have nevertheless left the Wallabies devastated.

They will head to Edinburgh on Monday gutted at watching their shot at history slip away so cruelly.

The day looked like belonging to Elsom, O'Driscoll's former Leinster teammate who was back to his devastating best for Australia.

The tireless flanker got through a mountain of work, shifting bodies at the breakdown, securing lineout ball and capping his fine display with his 62nd-minute strike, after he reeled in a pass one-handed from prop Ben Alexander.

Giteau's sideline conversion gave Australia a 20-13 lead, but the Wallabies were hanging on for grim life in the desperate closing few minutes.

A minute before O'Driscoll crossed, Ireland winger Tommy Bowe had a try disallowed after Will Genia, Peter Hynes, David Pocock and James O'Connor combined to hold him up over the line.

O'Driscoll made a horror start to his milestone match, the brilliant centre unable to take a wayward cut-out pass from Ronan O'Gara as Ireland looked to run the ball from inside their own quarter following a lineout win.

Mitchell gleefully swooped and raced 25 metres to score next to the posts.

Giteau's conversion made it 7-0 after three minutes.

Ireland replied with two O'Gara penalty goals to reduce the deficit to one point after 22 minutes, before Giteau slotted one shortly after to give the Wallabies a 10-6 halftime advantage.

Giteau went close to extending the lead when he pierced the defence, only to be chopped down two metres out.

But the Wallabies would have been relieved not to have been trailing at the break after the hosts enjoyed their best period while Wycliff Palu spent 10 minutes in the sin bin for what appeared a magnificent hit on Ireland fullback Robert Kearney.

The Irish tried everything to break down Australia's stonewall defence in the first half, with a saving hand from Giteau denying winger Bowe a five-pointer from a clever crossfield kick from O'Gara.

A second Giteau penalty goal increased Australia's lead to 13-6, but Bowe put the Irish on level terms with a try in the 56th minute.

In his first match in Dublin since inspiring Leinster's European Cup triumph earlier this year, Elsom seemed set to break Ireland hearts when he scored just after the hour mark.

Alas, it was O'Driscoll who had the final say.

AAP

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...016959,00.html

[palitu]

great game by the boys, Was it just me or was Digby's defence a little off, im not saying it because of the final try, but i did see him fall off a few tackles.

I think they may have looked to attack that channel because of it. Also, wasnt too impressed with coopers kicking game, needs a bit of work. Would have liked to see him attack a little more instead of always going for position, it does work out every now and again.

Final winge is the lineout of course, they should have at least tried to defend one of them in the last 15 mins. nothing more needs to be said about that.

Other than that, Great forwards work on the ground and the scrum, i think we dominated the breakdown and won a lot of turnovers we normally would have left. Quite surprising considering the Irish pack. Pocock did great at the breakdown, he was in everything, im pretty sure there were two of him on the park. Palu played well, as much as i dont like him, i think he only dropped the ball once!

then there were the backs, im not sure, i think they played well, not really versed in the intricacies of back line play.

Good on ya boys, though the Irish deserved that last try.

[pieter blackie]

ouch

I will have to watch the recording

[jazza93]

oh no, we can't get a Grand Slam anymore, whats the point in living.

We will probably have another 8 chances in the next 10 years, who cares.

[Thequeerone]

great game by the boys, Was it just me or was Digby's defence a little off, im not saying it because of the final try, but i did see him fall off a few tackles.

That knock at about 10 mins might have affected him more than showed.
He held up that inclusive try nicely 5 mins from the end.
Brownie may well be recalled based on Aussie 8 sin bin - mind you that was a 50:50 call.
Kaplan was really good.
Nice to see Rocky score
Pocock was unbelievable - you could see every single Irish man sing his praises as he arose after Pocock pilfered the ball - well deserved MOM.
Gits kicking was a bit patchy - bring back Shep
Deans influence was obvious in this game - they really tried to use O'Gara's shaky defence as a channel to the line.
A miracle try by BOD gave us the draw - he was really quite for most of it.
Ireland robbed a minimum of 4 lineouts.
Aussie Scrum was really really strong.

The kids learnt a new word - HEAVE, HEAVE, HEAVE

Good showcase of rugby - well worth a watch.

[beige]

oh no, we can't get a Grand Slam anymore, whats the point in living.

We will probably have another 8 chances in the next 10 years, who cares.

How often do you think these tours come around? This was the Wallabies' 8th ever and the first in 25 years.

[jazza93]

We go over there every year i just asumed we play the 6 nations every time. But i guess if thats the case then Digby must feel pretty bad lol.

[mudskipper]

Pocock had a great match... Line out improved in the second half, scrum was good... not enough support for Wallabies line breaks.

[KenyaQuin]

Not sure about the first half of the game being a spectacle. Plenty of kicking (not so much aimless just simply not effective) and not much ball-in-hand effective running. Unfortunately for the Irish spectators, the Wallabies scored in the first few minutes off a poor Irish pass which may have contributed to the tentative nature of the first half.

Much better play in the second half from both teams which made up for the first half. Brought life back into the crowd lifting the Irish team.

Would have preferred the last minute Irish try to have been scored in the corner and a missed conversion. Though a disappointing result for the home team, I think the crowd would have been appreciative of the effort and the Wallabies would go on with their Grand Slam ambitions.

Alas it was not to be. All round a commendable effort from the forwards..I think one of Palu's better efforts (despite the yellow which was a referee shocker) in recent times. Some loose lineout throws only issue that comes to mind.

The backs..hmm..an average effort (compared to the previous week). I think 13 is an issue for the Wallabies..Digby was quiet and I doubt Cross would have been any better. Mightn't necessarily be the player but rather an inability to inject the 13 effectively into attacking phases. Of all, I think Quade was my pick of the backs (in terms of creativity and spark) though a couple of fumbles in quick succession in opposition half bring him down a peg or two. Also, need to review the O'Driscoll try to work out how the hole came to be.

[GIGS20]

Massive gap between Digby and whoever was playing 12 at that time. Digby chose the outside runner, the ball came inside. It was a definite screw up of alignment at the scrum. Digby will probably be blamed, but he really had to choose ball or wing, he trusted the inside player, who was a lightyear away. I'd call it a team hole rather than blaming one person.

[tragic]

We was robbed!

I expected a close game - aren't our games against the Irish always like this?

However, wonderful to see the Wallaby scrum push the Irish around (am still confused about why there was no yellow card involved, or why destroying the opposition's scrum demands a reset?) Our line-out stank - what the HELL is going on there?

Pocock deserved MOM thrice over for that effort, given that there seemed to be about 3 of him on the field. He was totally spent after the game - he looked like he was about to fall over.

I remain steadfastly unconvinced about Cooper.

And once again, I rejoiced in Kaplan's interpretive dance moves on the pitch. I tuned into the game just for that.

(And Palu's hit was awesome Can't BELIEVE he was binned because his target tried to knock himself out.)

[eleypinkbit]

And once again, I rejoiced in Kaplan's interpretive dance moves on the pitch. I tuned into the game just for that.

(And Palu's hit was awesome Can't BELIEVE he was binned because his target tried to knock himself out.)

Ha ha, so true - half the time I had no idea what he was calling penalties for! Think he needs to review his ref book to see what penalty signals he should be making

And Palu was robbed - how was the shoulder charge on Elsom when he scored that try (by the Irish captain I think) - nothing came of that and there was definitely no arms in that one!

[palitu]

yep, palu had arms around him, but you expect the "skinny" full back to bounce off of Palu. BAD call by the ref, which would have contributed to a bit of a tiring defence.

Though the socceroos managed a man down for pretty much the whole match

[Stone Cold]

all hail Pocock the Destroyer! Awesome stuff - the irish had no answer to him

Would have liked to see George Smith come on for Palu near the end but alas not to be...

Cooper is still erratic...our line-out is crap...

absolutely loved the wallaby pack roll straight over the irish scrum - that was awesome!

We played well but seemed to the kick the ball away a lot and also can someone tell me why the hell Gits attempted that drop goal?

[The InnFORCEr]

I would like to thank Sportsbet for offering $23.00 for the draw, and I would also like to thank Kaplan for sweet FA.

Well done Wallabies!