Demons banished as Irish rule roost

If the revived International Rules series has taught us anything, it is to be wary of trying to extrapolate trends. Two years ago we worried that the Australians might never be serious enough about the concept actually to win a series. Twelve months ago Aussie coach Dermott Brereton announced the end of history. Ireland would struggle because of their amateur levels of fitness now that Australia had got the hang of the international game.

Yesterday in Adelaide, before a slightly disappointing crowd of 31,713 - down over 10,000 on two years ago - the fortunes of the countries took another lurch as Ireland emphatically sealed the series 2-0 with the biggest winning margin since the 1998 resumption.

It added to the strange statistics that govern International Rules. Of the eight Tests over four years, only one has been won by the home side - Ireland three years ago. But for the players who had endured the embarrassment of last year, the manner of the win was nearly as important.

"After the hammering we got last year in Croke Park it was great to give them a bit of a hiding," said Pβdraic Joyce. The Galway man had played his part in an old-fashioned Gaelic football attack whose effectiveness was based on beating the man on the deck rather than in the air.

The two crucial goals that set up the win both owed a good deal to skills more familiar in the association game. Anthony Tohill clipped in the first after eight minutes and, in the second quarter, Graham Geraghty added the second with a scything dribble that took him around the goalkeeper and opened up the net.

At 25, Sean Martin Lockhart is a veteran of the international game - one of only two players to have featured in all eight matches. He compares the entries in his largely successful ledger.

"This one's a wee bit better than two years ago because we won both games. The Australians were bragging last time about how good they were and how they'd caught on to this game but this year we've put them back in the pocket."

After last week's three stitches over an eye, he was in the wars again. Blake Caracella nearly decapitated Lockhart with a tackle as late as it was high.

"Your boy just caught me like a clothesline around the neck. I just felt my leg going from underneath me. I'm just too soft for this oul' game. My head went back and hit the ground. I was embarrassed coming off on a stretcher. I was saying to the boys: 'will you get me off this f------ stretcher?' I just wanted to get back on."

His Derry colleague and Ireland captain, Anthony Tohill, was more restrained in reflecting on the evening. Another goal tucked away and the series safely won, Tohill pointed out the long-term implications. "If the series was to survive it was important that we came out and gave a good account of ourselves. If we had have come out and given a repeat performance of the way we played in Croke Park last year, I think the thing was doomed. I suppose we showed that Ireland can compete against the best that Australia have."

Finally, it was left to manager Brian McEniff to outline what the whole project had meant to him after the serial discouragement of last year. "Seβn McCague gave me the opportunity to manage the team and I let him down last year. And I let myself down and my country. But the demons are banished and I can sleep now."

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