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Wallabies 18 - Ireland 12
In so many ways this was a perfect opening hit-out for Aussie Robbie. Importantly the Wallabies won - a loss would have killed the Dingo Deans feelgood factor stone dead. But equally, in this game we saw all of the Wallabies collective traits, both positive and negative, in spades.
In the first 20 minutes we saw some irresistible attacking rugby that resulted in two tries for Australia. In the first Tuqiri reproduced what he's done all year in super 14 to bulldoze through two tackles and then offload deftly to Barnes form him to scoot over.
The second was simply breathtaking. Through a combination of hard running, quick ball and stunning offloads, Horwill got on the end of a magic Giteau pill to score a well deserved try. The Wallabies having made 50m with ball in hand.
But then, having shown us what they can do with the ball in hand, the Wallabies attacking edge went AWOL. Instead we saw Berrick Barnes repeatedly kick the ball away while the forwards forgot about the breakdown and instead tried and get in on the game of touch footy that was breaking out among the back line. Having watched the English pack in the first half of the ABs game, had we been playing them, it may have been a much unhappier ending.
While the Aussie line-out was impressive, we'd been told that this Irish scrum wasn't up to much, and yet neither of the usual suspects Dunning nor Baxter looked in any way comfortable, if not distinctly fold-able. Reassuringly though, the trademark defence was still rock solid, locking the Irish out for the last 10 minutes.
In short, we shouldn't have expected much more after just two weeks - just how much can you change? But what AntipoDeans will now know, is just how much work he has left to do.
For Australia:
Tries: Barnes, Horwill
Cons: Giteau
Pens: Giteau 3
For Ireland:
Tries: Leamy, O'Driscoll
Con: O'Gara
Australia: 15 Cameron Shepherd, 14 Peter Hynes, 13 Stirling Mortlock (c), 12 Berrick Barnes, 11 Lote Tuqiri, 10 Matt Giteau, 9 G&GRs own Luke Burgess, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 George Smith, 6 Rocky Elsom, 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 James Horwill, 3 Matt Dunning, 2 Stephen Moore,1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements: 16 Adam Freier, 17 Al Baxter, 18 Dean Mumm, 19 Phil Waugh, 20 Sam Cordingley, 21 Ryan Cross, 22 Adam Ashley-Cooper.
Ireland: 15 Robert Kearney, 14 Shane Horgan, 13 Brian O'Driscoll (c), 12 Paddy Wallace, 11 Tommy Bowe, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 Shane Jennings, 6 Denis Leamy, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 John Hayes, 2 Rory Best, 1 Marcus Horan.
Replacements: 16 Jerry Flannery, 17 Tony Buckley, 18 Mick O'Driscoll, 19 Stephen Ferris, 20 Eoin Reddan, 21 Geordan Murphy, 22 Girvan Dempsey.
Referee: Christophe Berdos (France)
Touch judges: Chris White (England), Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand)
Television match official: Johann Meuwesen (South Africa)
Assessor: Andrew Cole (Australia)