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Wallabies v Ireland, Croke Park November 16, 2009. Wallabies drew with Ireland 20 all. Photo by Pothale
Australia’s grand slam dream is over after a heartbreaking last-minute try to superstar captain Brian O’Driscoll secured Ireland a dramatic 20-20 draw with the Wallabies in Dublin.
Celebrating his 100th Test in spectacular style, O’Driscoll sliced through a huge gap in the Australian midfield to score under the posts.
Referee Jonathan Kaplan blew fulltime immediately after Ireland five-eighth Ronan O’Gara drilled the conversion to shatter the Wallabies’s hopes of emulating Australia’s legendary 1984 tourists who completed the grand slam sweep over England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
After a dream start, with winger Drew Mitchell scoring in the third minute, the Wallabies were never headed and looked like storming Croke Park when inspirational captain Rocky Elsom crashed over in the left-hand corner to break a 13-13 deadlock 18 minutes from time.
The draw, which came on the first anniversary of Ireland’s most recent defeat, snapped the Six Nations champions’s eight-Test winning streak — but would have nevertheless left the Wallabies devastated.
They will head to Edinburgh on Monday gutted at watching their shot at history slip away so cruelly.
The day looked like belonging to Elsom, O’Driscoll’s former Leinster teammate who was back to his devastating best for Australia.
The tireless flanker got through a mountain of work, shifting bodies at the breakdown, securing lineout ball and capping his fine display with his 62nd-minute strike, after he reeled in a pass one-handed from prop Ben Alexander.
Giteau’s sideline conversion gave Australia a 20-13 lead, but the Wallabies were hanging on for grim life in the desperate closing few minutes.
A minute before O’Driscoll crossed, Ireland winger Tommy Bowe had a try disallowed after Will Genia, Peter Hynes, David Pocock and James O’Connor combined to hold him up over the line.
O’Driscoll made a horror start to his milestone match, the brilliant centre unable to take a wayward cut-out pass from Ronan O’Gara as Ireland looked to run the ball from inside their own quarter following a lineout win.
Mitchell gleefully swooped and raced 25 metres to score next to the posts.
Giteau’s conversion made it 7-0 after three minutes.
Ireland replied with two O’Gara penalty goals to reduce the deficit to one point after 22 minutes, before Giteau slotted one shortly after to give the Wallabies a 10-6 halftime advantage.
Giteau went close to extending the lead when he pierced the defence, only to be chopped down two metres out.
But the Wallabies would have been relieved not to have been trailing at the break after the hosts enjoyed their best period while Wycliff Palu sent 10 minutes in the sin bin for what appeared a magnificent hit on Ireland fullback Robert Kearney.
The Irish tried everything to break down Australia’s stonewall defence in the first half, with a saving hand from Giteau denying winger Bowe a five-pointer from a clever crossfield kick from O’Gara.
A second Giteau penalty goal increased Australia’s lead to 13-6, but Bowe put the Irish on level terms with a try in the 56th minute.
In his first match in Dublin since inspiring Leinster’s European Cup triumph earlier this year, Elsom seemed set to break Ireland hearts when he scored just after the hour mark.
Alas, it was O’Driscoll who had the final say.
View a photo gallery of the match, provided by Roarer Pothale.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.