Australia had been ripping Ireland up the middle during the first-half, with out-half Carter Gordon and centres Len Ikitau and Joseph-Aukuso Sua’al’ii having the run of Allianz Stadium.<\/p>\n
The Wallabies were 24-12 ahead and on the front foot when Sua’al’ii punctured the Irish defence once again on 36 minutes and looked destined to get a fifth Wallabies try before the break, only for a sensational Hugo Keenan tackle to snuff it out and force a turnover.<\/p>\n
Moments later Jamison Gibson-Park ran in for an Irish try, the conversion for which cut the deficit to just five points, and flipped the narrative for Andy Farrell at half-time.<\/p>\n
“It was huge. We referenced it,” the Ireland head coach said of those game changing minutes, after the dramatic 33-31 win.<\/p>\n
As for Gibson-Park’s try, Farrell was particularly pleased at how his side chose to run the ball from a scrum on their own 22, rather than just kick to touch and get in for half-time.<\/p>\n
![\"4](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0024a34f-614.jpg\"\/)
\nTadhg Furlong congratulates Jamison-Gibson-Park after his try<\/p>\n
“They believe in themselves, that if everyone’s involved and we’ve got all 15 involved in our attack, then we can make things happen.<\/p>\n
“I mean, the last thing we wanted to do is kick the ball away because we want to give ourselves a chance to do what we know we can do. So that was the most pleasing thing about it – the ambition to do what they know they’re good at.<\/p>\n
“That’s what we pride ourselves on. Everyone being involved, everyone being an option, everyone working hard to make sure that we’re able to make things work as a group. And we certainly [were] on that occasion.<\/p>\n
“So it was a nice reference of what to do. There’s a couple of what not to do as well – with our carries and stuff like that in the first half.<\/p>\n
“I thought they won some key moments collision-wise and slowed our ball down, so there was plenty to fix.”<\/p>\n
While the manner of the win was special, the performance was far from perfect, and both sides struggled to put any real control on their game, summed up by the fact that each side led on four separate occasions.<\/p>\n
“That was a hell of a Test match, it certainly would have been for the neutral, I would have thought,” a relieved Farrell said.<\/p>\n
“But, you know, the first thing that comes to mind for me is how proud I am of how the lads showed character in the second half.<\/p>\n
![\"4](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0024a36f-614.jpg\"\/)
\nJack Conan celebrates the winning try<\/p>\n
“There are some special moments within the game that deserve a hard-fought win like that; Hugo’s try-saving tackle and Sam [Prendergast] with the calmness to get the conversion when he did.<\/p>\n
“I suppose it’s a good one for us because there’s plenty to fix and we need to fix it properly for what’s coming ahead, including next week. So it’s a good place to be fixing stuff and, earning a hard-fought win at the same time.<\/p>\n
“But again, the positive is coming away with a big W and fixing on the run. The tour is underway now.”<\/p>\n
Even after coming from 24-12 down to lead early in the second half, Ireland still had to come from behind to win it in late on, as Thomas Clarkson’s try on 77 minutes, converted by Prendergast, nudged them back in front.<\/p>\n
Even after that, they still had to survive the final two minutes, where Australia\u2019s Ben Donaldson had a chance to win the game with a penalty as the clock was in the red.<\/p>\n
A few minutes earlier, the Wallabies out-half had missed from a similar range near the right touchline, and Farrell admitted he feared the worst when Donaldson stood over his second effort.<\/p>\n
“Honestly, I thought he’d get it because the one that he had before, when you have an opportunity and it doesn’t quite go right the first time, you know what to fix,” he admitted.<\/p>\n
“But having said that, it was a long way out. Tough, tough old kick. But he’s a class operator.<\/p>\n
“I suppose you would love that option, of a player like that with so much experience to come off the bench and have the opportunity.<\/p>\n
“But it’s a tough old kick like, you know. It’s a shot to the dark, really. Fine margins, isn’t it? That’s top-level Test match rugby. That’s how it should be.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia should have been 17 or 19 points ahead of Ireland at half-time in Sydney. Instead, their lead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-532818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}