Australia continued their winning start under new coach John Connolly with a tricky but ultimately comfortable 37-15 victory over Ireland at Subiaco Oval in Perth last night.
Buoyed by a 2-0 series whitewash of England, Australia ran in five tries to two to make it three wins out of three
under Connolly with Ireland visibly tired after their two Test defeats by the All Blacks in recent weeks.
But Ireland gave Australia the Test England never mustered in a thrilling, open game that went conclusively the Wallabies' way only in the final 20 minutes.
The win came at a cost for Australia, with Mat Rogers suffering an ankle injury and Clyde Rathbone an injured hamstring.
"We knew they would compete really hard, and we got the results of our hard work in the second half," skipper George Gregan said.
"We knew they were going to throw caution to the wind and they scored two really good tries but we kept our heads and got back into it."
Irish skipper Brian O'Driscoll admitted his side tired after the hour mark.
"All three Tests have been hard but we felt we had the chance to take a scalp here but we obviously have a long way to go," he said.
"We did a huge amount of defending and that takes its toll."
And he said he believed the Wallabies were a better team than the All Blacks.
"I just feel as though their whole game points towards them being a more powerful side," he said. "On the evidence of how we've played against the All Blacks and how we've played against the Wallabies, the Wallabies clearly were the better side."
Australia opened their account with a 13th minute penalty from Stirling Mortlock and then Chris Latham finished off a superb unbroken spell of play when he converted a left-wing overlap in the corner to make it 8-0, Mortlock missing the conversion.
The Wallabies lost Rogers on 31 minutes before Ronan O'Gara and Mortlock exchanged penalties to make it 11-3 at the break.
Ireland seemed invigorated by the rest and fly half O'Gara, criticised for a poor missed tackle in the second Test defeat by the All Blacks last week, set up and scored Ireland's opener.
O'Gara's cross-field kick was collected by Shane Horgan, who fed inside to David Wallace. Wallace found O'Gara who fell over the line for the try.
He missed the conversion but eight minutes later Ireland took the lead with a superlative try from Neil Best.
The Australians battled back with verve, Mark Gerrard restoring the lead when his nice dummy pass fooled John Hayes and he touched down under the posts, Mortlock's boot making it 18-15.
Then giant prop Greg Holmes collected a loose ball on the halfway line and sprinted clear to score under the posts, Mortlock making no mistake with the conversion to make it 25-15.
Gregan got the try he and the Australian pressure deserved on 69 minutes when he collected George Smith's pass and rode two tackles to cross.
Cameron Shepherd scored his first Test try after a delightful pass from Stephen Larkham before Mortlock completed the scoring.
- REUTERS
Australia continued their winning start under new coach John Connolly with a tricky but ultimately comfortable 37-15 victory over Ireland at Subiaco Oval in Perth last night.
Buoyed by a 2-0 series whitewash of England, Australia ran in five tries to two to make it three wins out of three
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