Ireland ‘s first half performance reaped two superb tries and a half-time standing ovation from a sell-out Lansdowne Road crowd. Dominating all statistics, and forcing Australia onto the back foot, it was a joy to watch (unless you’re Australian) despite the gale force conditions and rain. The 21 – 6 victory unofficially puts Ireland second place in the world, whatever the International Rugby Board world rankings. The Rugby World Cup cannot come too soon – let’s hope we can hold this form!
Update:
- Ireland – Australia highlights video (8 mins, 28MB) from skelp.ie or YouTube version (3 mins, low bandwidth)
- IRB has updated it’s rankings and Ireland is in 3rd place, to New Zealand 1st and France 2nd (sure they are!) as of 20/Nov/06
- Read plenty of match reports via Google News
Latest IRB rankings:
- New Zealand 94.59 points
- France 85.86
- Ireland 84.68
- Australia 84.63
- South Africa 83.83
- Argentina 79.70
- England 79.55
- Scotland 77.72
- Wales 77.02
- Samoa 73.86
Ireland – Australia: Teams
Ireland: 15-Geordan Murphy (22-Girvan Dempsey 80), 14-Shane Horgan, 13-Brian O’Driscoll (captain), 12-Gordon D’Arcy, 11-Denis Hickie; 10-Ronan O’Gara, 9-Isaac Boss (20-Peter Stringer 73); 8-Denis Leamy, 7-David Wallace, 6-Neil Best (19-Simon Easterby 63), 5-Paul O’Connell (18-Malcolm O’Kelly 76), 4-Donncha O’Callaghan, 3-John Hayes, 2-Rory Best (16-Frankie Sheahan 76), 1-Bryan Young (17-Marcus Horan 63, Young 76)
Australia: 15-Chris Latham; 14-Clyde Rathbone (22-Scott Staniforth 68), 13-Lote Tuqiri, 12-Stirling Mortlock (captain), 11-Mark Gerrard; 10-Stephen Larkham (21-Mat Rogers 29), 9-Matt Giteau (20-Josh Valentine 80); 8-Wycliff Palu (19-George Smith 51), 7-Phil Waugh, 6-Rocky Elsom, 5-Mark Chisholm (18-Al Campbell 78), 4-Nathan Sharpe, 3-Guy Shepherdson (Baxter 80), 2-Tai McIsaac (16-Stephen Moore 58) 1-Al Baxter (17-Benn Robinson 40)
Referee: Marius Jonker (South Africa)