If you can imagine a look of relief, joy, pride and a little bit of I-told-you-so in one expression that's how Seán Boylan faced us in the Irish dressingroom on Saturday night. In the good old-fashioned surroundings of players standing naked and staging impromptu interviews Boylan was cornered before he had time to change his shirt.

"We were probably a little lucky to come out with the win in the end," he admitted, "but I think the boys fought really hard, against an outstanding team. There were times there when it looked like they were playing ducks and drakes with us. They are terribly fast and skilful, and I suppose we are terribly lucky to be where we are.

"But then our captain Kieran McGeeney led from the front, made a fantastic tackle at the end, and changed the whole game for us, really. There's still only a kick of the ball between us, and we know that there will probably be a backlash . . . We'll look forward to that."

Boylan has worked many wonders in the past during his years with Meath and reckons Ireland always had the chance of victory even though it arrived in the most unlikely circumstances.

"Sure that's bred in us really, and there's nothing wrong with that. I've got to know these players over the last few weeks and they are all fantastic characters, but I realised as well they all wanted this for Ireland. And this certainly sets it up for next week, and shows again that we are a sporting-mad nation. When you're playing a nation as proud as the Australians you have to be up for it."

McGeeney then walked out of the showers and grabbed a banana, quickly surrounded by dictaphones. He's asked if the Irish are confident of finishing the job next Sunday. "I couldn't say we're confident," he said, "It's only half-time, really. We got the breaks there at the end, but we know the Australians will probably get better. We need to pick up on those couple of goal chances we missed here.

"But when you're playing the best footballers Australia have there's no way you're going to dominate the whole thing. As the game went on they seemed to get more confident to move the ball about. And of course the Australians don't like losing. We know nothing is won yet. This would be like us winning the provincial title, and losing the All-Ireland, and as we know that's nice but means f*** all, if you'll pardon my French."

McGeeney - who is set to play for his Dublin club Na Fianna this evening - praised his team- mates for their tackling: "We did work on that, but when you have players like Tom Kelly and Aidan O'Mahony out there, well, they're not small lads. But everyone was whole-hearted when they went for the tackle. That was important. The Australians are used to doing that, and we're not. We're used to just shadowing them.

"And I know a lot of people still knock this game, and they're entitled to that opinion. We all have opinions. But there were 35,000 out there and they'll be 80,000 in Croke Park, so maybe popular opinion likes this game."

Galway's own Joe Bergin, was busy recounting his winning goal: "I knew from the roar of the crowd there was no one else to beat but the goalkeeper. But thanks be to God, it went into the back of the net. It was a fantastic crowd. And a very special moment, in my home town.

"But we never thought the game was gone. You have to remember these are the best footballers in the country out there, every one of them are leaders. And the one thing Kieran McGeeney instilled into us is to be competitive, and I think we were competitive right through, and also 100 per cent confident in what we could do. We were never going to panic.

"We're gelling nicely as a team, and we know this is only half-time. But I really don't think there's much between us. Of course the Aussies will come back at us, and we know we've it all to do. The way we see it it's still level-pegging . . ."

And another star of the night - Sydney and Listowel's Tadhg Kennelly - reckoned Ireland would be more confident going into the second Test. "Yeah, I believe we will feel a lot more confident now, especially the players who are on the team for the first time. And there is great heart in this team. I looked up at one stage near the end and the clock showed a minute and 40 seconds to go. We were down a couple of points and they were trying to run down the clock, chipping the ball about the place, and I could hear every Irish player on the field shouting to get into them and get that ball.

"Eventually we turned the ball around. I never thought for a moment we were not going to make it and everyone in our team was trying to pick up a man. They were trying to waste time and we did the right thing in picking up a man each and it paid off . . . It was still a hard game out there but it was not dirty or anything like it.

"You saw where Australia could have won it by playing within the rules. They did not have to play rough or dirty to win. There was some very good football out there, so much better than last year, and that probably suited us because we have some very skilful footballers."