Irish have come a long way

At times during the past month, the touring Irish made their coach, and other regular observers, feel like the sane man in the asylum screaming his sanity even more insanely with each passing day. At last though, a Saturday night pass to the Subiaco Oval might have convinced the sceptics.

More than anything else, this will have re-affirmed the management's belief that they are going in the right direction, and imbued the Irish players with a belief that they can deliver.

Warren Gatland knows his stuff and two of the areas which he had identified from the first Test and hammered home during the week were the contact situation and the aerial ping-pong. Tactically too, he caught his counterpart, Rod Macqueen, completely off-guard.

To protect the ball in contact from the voracious David Wilson and company, the Irish forwards -and backs - got down and dirty on the soaked Subiaco turf (which held up remarkably well). They were quick to support the ball-carrier when he went to ground (aside from his usual stuff around the park, Keith Wood was outstanding in this regard), and willingly went to ground with him if necessary, while the tackled player also took the tackle on his own terms more often to ensure the support arrived.

Strictly speaking, much of the "bridging" was all highly illegal as refereed in the northern hemisphere, but this was Super 12 rugby and so Ireland rucked Australian.

The net result was that Ireland held onto the ball far longer. From the dizzying heights of fifth-phase ball - as Kevin Maggs, Dion O'Cuinneagain, Brian O'Driscoll and Trevor Brennan all took the ball straight over the gain line from a line-out platform 40 metres out - Peter Clohessy deservingly and adroitly burrowing over.

As regards the ping-pong, whether it was Girvan Dempsey or Wood or whoever else, the Irish intelligently and patiently played the percentages to ensure a more equitable share of the possession graph by trading kicks. On top of which, David Humphreys adapted his game to the conditions and reverted to more of a kicking game (he kicked 17 of the 28 balls that came his way). But he varied his kicking and running games beautifully; his torpedos arrowing into the corners with unerring accuracy to pin Australia back.

All told, they all played well. The work-rate of the tight and loose forwards at ruck time and tackle time was immense. The scrum tweaked as designed and Dion O'Cuinneagain's pace, foot-balling savvy and hands gave Ireland far more dynamic attacking options off the base. So it's number eight for the skipper after all.

They also competed better in the line-outs and the restarts, where the promotion of O'Kelly and Brennan gave Ireland some added ammunition. This pair also upped the tackle count, by tackling till they dropped and O'Kelly also threw in a couple of intercepts and a few gallops.

Where Paddy Johns dug this hour up from, after seemingly being "flahed" for the last two or three months, heaven knows. Aside from his usual donkey-work, his flicked pass off the deck to Brian O'Driscoll, after Trevor Brennan's hit on George Gregan had forced an Australian spillage, led to David Humphreys's third first-half three-pointer.

For sure, Australia weren't at their best. Whatever about being complacent - local odds against them winning were 100 to one on - they certainly seemed to carry on in the same mood as they finished last week. Hence they were trying to force the pass wider out rather than set up a platform.

For much of the third quarter, Ireland held them in a vice-like territorial grip, inched further ahead and the thinkable was becoming unthinkable at 14-9, which was a fair reflection of the game. Whereupon O'Kelly's fateful knock-on of a sliced Chris Latham up-and-under (as the Irish lock over-stretched while endeavouring to stay inside his 22) kick-started the Wallabies. A shame for Big Mal as he was arguably Ireland's best player.

Oz law decreed that the error was punished by a seven-pointer as Andy Ward bought Spooner's dummy, (Gatland and Clohessy himself, acknowledging that Clohessy had failed to communicate that he had lined up Joe Roff's decoy run inside), and Horan went over.

Thereafter, Ireland became a little desperate and missed a few tackles, while the penalties came in a flood from Andre Watson.

In general, the Irish seemed to be given less time to present ruck ball, while Paul Wallace and Peter Clohessy will feel personally victimised. Providing echoes of Scotland's win in Dublin two years ago, Wallace had mystifyingly been penalised for incorrect binding and another three-pointer. Clohessy was adjudged offside when Gregan blatantly played for a penalty in the first-half, even though the ball seemed clearly out, and so began another running battle between official and referee which culminated in another yellow card and prompt replacement.

What with Latham's forward pass being ignored, Joe Roff took over the kicking duties to inch Australia out of sight. They had pulled themselves together, punching through off the fringes of rucks, helped by Horan switching effortlessly to out-half and a couple of impact subs beyond Ireland's scope in Tiaan Strauss and Nathan Grey.

Credit to the boys in green for digging deep and finishing with a flourish of two fine injury-time tries. The brilliant O'Kelly ignited it all with an Aussie line-out take and charge, Humphreys working a loop and dummy scissors for Jonathan Bell to augment a big-tackling display with a well-weighted chip. Justin Bishop, who had been everywhere in his nominal role of wing, deserved his measured, try-scoring dive.

Better followed when sheer, 15-man collective will provided the scrum platform from which O'Cuinneagain's pick and Tom Tierney's deftly-timed transfer for Kevin Maggs to blast through in a blur.

Neither the previous 20 minutes or this finale reflected much about fitness levels, more the difference possession makes. As O'Cuinneagain sighed afterwards: "It's an easier game when you have the ball in your hand."

With that, Ireland signed off an 11-month season, a month-long tour and this match in some style. They have come a long way after all.

Scoring sequence: 5 mins: Humphreys penalty 0-3; 11: Spooner penalty 3-3; 18: Spooner penalty 6-3; 30: Clohessy try 6-8; 40 (+3): Humphreys penalty 6-11; 40 (+8): Spooner penalty 9-11. 52: Humphreys penalty 9-14; 58: Horan try, Roff conversion 16-14; 66: Roff penalty 19-14; 70: Roff penalty 22-14; 73: Latham try, Roff conversion 29-14; 79: Roff penalty 32-14; 81: Bishop try 32-19; 87: Maggs try, Humphreys penalty 32-26.

Australia: C Latham (Queensland); J Lit- tle (New South Wales), D Herbert (Queensland), T Horan (Queensland), J Roff (ACT); N Spooner (Queensland), G Gregan (ACT); G Panoho (Queensland), J Paul (ACT), P Noriega (ACT), T Bowman (New South Wales), D Giffin (ACT), M Cockbain (Queensland), T Kefu (Queensland), D Wilson (Queensland) capt. Replacements - D Crowley for Panoho (29 mins), T Strauss (New South Wales) for Cockbain (22-29) and for Tefu (47 mins), N Grey (New South Wales) for Spooner (58 mins), J Williams (ACT) for Cockbain (75 mins), M Burke (New South Wales) for Latham (77 mins), P Kearns (New South Wales) for Wilson (81 mins).

Ireland: G Dempsey (Terenure); J Bishop (London Irish), B O'Driscoll (Blackrock), K Maggs (Bath), J Bell (Dungannon); D Humprheys (Dungannon), T Tierney (Garryowen); P Clohessy (Young Munster), K Wood (Harlequins), P Wallace (Saracens), P Johns (Dungannon), M O'Kelly (St Mary's), T Brennan (St Mary's), D O'Cuinneagain (unattached) capt, A Ward (Ballynahinch). Replacements - R Nesdale (Newcastle) for Wood (56 mins), J Davidson (Castres) for Johns (67 mins), R Corrigan (Lansdowne) for Clohessy (71 mins), D Corkery (Cork Constitution) for Brennan (76 mins).

Referee: A Watson (South Africa).