27 Jun 2010

Wallabies beat Ireland

12:48 pm on 27 June 2010

The Wallabies have scored a scrappy 22-15 win over Ireland in Brisbane, scoring two tries to none.

Halfback Luke Burgess and first five Quade Cooper scored first-half tries for the Wallabies, while Cooper also slotted two penalties.

Second five Matt Giteau scored the only points of the second half when he kicked two penalties for the hosts, who lost 21-20 to England last weekend.

Australia dominated territory and possession, but were penalised by referee Bryce Lawrence when Ireland got inside the Wallabies' territory, which allowed flyhalf Jonathan Sexton to kick five first-half penalties.

The Wallabies, however, established a 16-15 lead at the break after Burgess intercepted a pass from Ireland number eight Chris Henry and ran 40 metres to score.

Cooper then side-stepped his way past three defenders after the halftime hooter had sounded.

Australia continued to hammer away at the Irish defensive line in the second half, but made far too many mistakes to fully capitalise on their wealth of possession.

Their error rate was highlighted by Kurtley Beale's inexplicable decision to kick ahead in the 60th minute when he was confronted with just a prop between him and the tryline and a lurking Giteau outside with only one other man to beat.

Australia's first game in the Tri-Nations is against South Africa on July 24th in Brisbane.

Ireland also lost to the All Blacks and New Zealand Maori in their June internationals.