Ireland bow out in Malaysia

Republic of Ireland 1 Australia 3: A Republic of Ireland side beset by illness has bowed out of the Under-23 Intercontinental Cup tournament in Malaysia at the semi-final stage after defeat to Australia.

A hat-trick from Matthew Simon sealed the fate of Don Givens' side before Alan Judge's 84th minute consolation.

Australia will play Nigeria in the final of the eight-nation tournament.

Ireland were without defenders Eddie Nolan and Darren Dennehy, who are both suffering from a virus.

Simon opened the scoring with a header in the seventh minute and doubled the advantage 10 minutes later when he nodded the ball past Shane Redmond at the back post.

Ireland then lost Stephen Ward and Shane Collins after 23 and 25 minutes respectively.  The pair had also been feeling the effects of the virus and were never expected to last the entire game.

Nevertheless Ireland caused their opponents problems late in the first half and went close through Billy Clarke who saw a shot clip the crossbar before shooting narrowly wide moments later.

Simon added a third in the 75th minute but Ireland got some reward when Judge finished for the first time at this level after David Elebert set him up.

"Overall, I'm happy with the performance of my players. It was a pity that the illness has to get in the way over the last day but some of those youngsters really took their chance and impressed me," Ireland manager Don Givens said afterwards.

Republic of Ireland: Shane Redmond (Nottingham Forest), Simon Madden (Leeds United), David Elebert (Hamilton Academicals), Shane Lowry (Aston Villa), Michael Spillane (Norwich City), James Ryan (Shrewsbury Town), Michael Collins (Huddersfield Town), Keith Treacy (Blackburn Rovers), Alan Judge (Blackburn Rovers), Billy Clarke (Ipswich Town), Stephen Ward (Wolverhampton Wanderers).

Substitutions: Mark Salmon (Wolverhampton Wanderers) for Collins (23 mins), Karl Moore (Manchester City) for Ward (25 mins), Stephen Maher (Yeovil Town) for Ryan (84 mins).