Superior Ireland turn the screw

Ireland 21 Australia 6: So much for the Wallabies' monster midfield. Although it was one of those rain-lashed, galeforce days that Ireland's autumnal programme regularly seems to serve up, this was a day for brain as well as brawn. A day for what is euphemistically termed Munster rugby and few play it better than Ireland.

Electing to play into the first-half wind and rain, it helps, perhaps, when the spine of your pack hails from Munster and your outhalf is Ronan O'Gara - in the form of his life. Right now he can play it anyway, anytime, anywhere, but Dan Carter apart, on days like this you wouldn't swap O'Gara for anybody.

With Isaac Boss, flourishing in these conditions on his first start, pinning the Australian fringe defence, O'Gara used the target runners around him or more often the ever-willing Gordon D'Arcy and Brian O'Driscoll. Time after time D'Arcy took the ball into the thick of that monster midfield and extracted inches or yards that he had no right to make.

Ireland always had pods of players clustered together, and reduced their margin for error by rarely forcing the pass or risking too long a pass.

It helped too that players like Denis Leamy, causing the Wallabies mayhem on the deck, smartly reading the plays and providing that hard edge, John Hayes - who had a mighty game - and Neil Best are such honest, toiling, and effective players. Best, especially, drew the lines in the sand with a steady stream of big hits or ball carries in contact. In an unflashy all-round effort, Rory Best gave a selfless performance, endlessly hitting rucks and making his darts, while Donncha O'Callaghan, now punctuating his unquestionable work-rate with big plays, also had another big game.

Indeed, it was Neil Best who quickly set the tempo with a rib-tickling big hit on Rocky Elsom. Although Stirling Mortlock opened the scoring, the Wallabies seemed unsure of how to kick with the wind. They were guilty of aimless punts to the in-goal area or dead, and Ireland were quickly into their groove.

O'Gara's hanging 22-metre restarts were hunted down voraciously by Paul O'Connell and O'Callaghan, the latter's pick-up and charge earning a penalty from which the pack launched a maul. There followed over three minutes of multiple recycles, D'Arcy dancing, ducking and pumping his legs in contact on three separate occasions. Boss's sniping threat was also a recurring theme and a blindside pick-up and dart, linking off the deck with O'Driscoll, had seemingly seen Geordan Murphy score in the corner. But the TMO, Mark Lawrence from South Africa, correctly deemed that the fullback had knocked on before grounding the ball.

Compensation came by way of the equalising penalty, across the wind and via the upright, by O'Gara as Marius Jonker had been playing advantage against Guy Shepherdson for not rolling away. The force remained with Ireland; Neil Best making a huge hit on Tuqiri, shaken but not stirred, and bounced off Phil Waugh either side of a big line-break by Shane Horgan as first receiver off a lineut maul.

A muscular steal by Hayes, ripping the ball from Al Baxter, off a loose lineout tap by Mark Chisholm had Ireland hammering away through the phases again. Although Australia earned a relieving scrum, David Wallace stopped Wycliff Palu in his tracks when he picked up off the base, forcing the turnover penalty against Chisholm for going to ground.

O'Driscoll, in a clear statement of intent, tapped the penalty unhesitatingly into touch himself. The attempted drive off an O'Connell take was illegally taken down, but with Jonker playing advantage O'Gara juggled Boss' pass while running across field and kicked toward the touchline-hugging Hickie. Gathering on the bounce, he stepped inside Latham, did a pirouette past Clyde Rathbone and Tuqiri before ducking under Latham's recovering tackle to score with impressive composure.

There were hints of other breakthroughs, O'Gara making a clean break, and Shane Horgan freeing his hands in the tackle for Leamy. Nearing half-time, the only blemish was that Ireland's superiority wasn't more accurately reflected on the scoreboard.

Right on cue, a great steal by O'Callaghan had O'Gara looping around O'Driscoll, drawing two defenders like a magnet before deftly passing behind him, and the outhalf cleverly drew Mark Gerrard with a dummy pass to take him out of the equation and miss pass to Horgan. He offloaded inside for Murphy, who had taken one of his trademark support trailers, to scamper in and narrow O'Gara's conversion angle. At 15-3, the interval provided little in the way of sustenance for Australia.

To their credit, they didn't buckle in the second half and kept Ireland tryless. Mortlock tagged on their second penalty before they were gradually pinned back again. Murphy was also taking the ball into contact noticeably well, and the extra inches he earned drew serial offender Chisholm offside in midfield for O'Gara to make it 18-6.

Best having made another monster hit on Mortlock, O'Gara tightened the leash by going through the air as only he can. When Rathbone fumbled a ball in behind him his attempted counter-attack was met full on by D'Arcy and O'Connell, Shepherdson dimly picking up the knock-on from an offside position.

O'Gara having made it 21-6 and Eddie O'Sullivan having started to empty the bench, the day's first rendition of The Fields - always a reliable barometer of Ireland's wellbeing and usually a signal that the home crowd dare to believe the team are in a winning groove - echoed around the old ground.

So Ireland turned the screw even tighter, Hickie, O'Gara and O'Driscoll in turn pinning the Wallabies into their own 22, forcing them to play catch-up from there. The Wallabies mightn't find much consolation in the Scottish weather this coming week, but will console themselves that conditions will hardly be like this at the World Cup. Then again, it rains occasionally in France too.

As was the case last week, the Irish players' reaction to this latest Tri Nations scalp was relatively low-key and nothing like as euphoric as when beating the then world champions here four years ago in only marginally more horrible conditions.

They have a chance of a third win from three next Sunday, and then bigger goals to aim for. A title to target.