Wallabies Finally On the Board

The Wallabies have eased the pressure on besieged coach Eddie Jones scoring an unconvincing 30-14 victory over Ireland early this morning at Lansdowne Road.

Australia found themselves behind 6-3 at half time, but an improved effort in the second half saw the visitors run in three tries to ensure that their long losing streak dating back to early July was halted at the seven matches.

Fullback Chris Latham won man of the match honours after turning the game on its head midway through the second half with a stunning individual try that gave the Wallabies some much needed breathing space.

His fellow Queenslander, winger Drew Mitchell, also had a great game in the gold jersey picking up a try scoring double, while fly half Mat Rogers had another solid game with the number 10 on his back landing six of his seven attempts at goal for a haul of 15 points for the match.

Proceedings started poorly for the Australian’s with Ireland’s Ronan O’Gara slotting a penalty goal to give the home side a 3-0 lead after six minutes and have the capacity crowd in raptures, but 10 minutes later the Irish fans were left speechless when lock Malcolm O’Kelly was immobilised and stretchered from the field after a strong hit from Lote Tuquri.

Soon after this incident the Wallabies drew level at 3-3 with Mat Rogers knocking over a penalty goal, but that was countered in the 35th minute by O’Gara’s second penalty goal of the afternoon (6-3).

Ireland had a great chance to extend their lead seconds before half time, but fullback Geordan Murphy’s pass failed to hit the mark with his winger looking certain to score in the corner.

Australia came out with renewed vigour in the second half quickly evening the score line at 6-6 courtesy of another Rogers penalty goal and just five minutes later they had their first lead of the match after Drew Mitchell barged his way over the line for the opening try of the game.

Rogers had no problems with the extras sending the Wallabies out to a converted try lead (13-6).

Rogers missed a chance to push Australia further ahead when his penalty goal in the 50th minute was just wide and Ireland made sure his failure was punished as replacement fly half David Humphreys nailed his first penalty goal to get the home side within four points (13-9).

A piece of brilliance from Latham broke the game open for the visitors with the speedy fullback throwing a dummy and then racing 50 metres untouched to dive over just to the left of the posts.

Rogers made no mistake with the conversion to give the Wallabies a handy 11 point buffer (20-9).

Ireland received some hope when George Smith was sin binned, but it was to no avail as Mitchell wrapped up the game with a hustling effort down the left hand flank that resulted in him scrambling over in the left hand corner.

The big crowd finally had something too cheer about in the final few minutes when winger Shane Horgan streaked over to reduce the gap to 13 points, but when the final whistle sounded they were vanquished by 16 points after a late Rogers penalty goal.

The Wallabies Spring tour continues next Saturday when they take on Wales at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

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