Ireland defeated by the Wallabies in Brisbane

The Wallabies beat Ireland 22-15 in a scrappy game at Brisbanes Suncorp Stadium on Saturday. Quade Cooper shared kicking duties with Matt Giteau, but also scored a nice try of his own as Australia maintained their 31 year home winning streak over Ireland.

The home side led 16-15 at halftime before Giteau kicked two second half penalties to take the game away from the tourists, who end their 2010 season winless from their three matches in Australasia.

Both sides lacked the killer instinct on attack but Ireland can now relax and enjoy the break before next season, while the Wallabies will have some work to do before the Tri Nations kicks off in a few weeks time.

“I think we drew 20-20 with them last year and played a lot better in that match but we came out with a win tonight and you’ve got to be happy when you get up on the scoreboard,” said Wallaby captain Rocky Elsom.

“I think we weren’t sharp enough in attack tonight. We weren’t on the same page and things only work for you when you’re on the same page. We weren’t tonight but we’ll learn from that. The Tri-Nations is the most difficult tournament in world rugby so we have a lot of work to do,” he added.

Ireland performed admirably considering their injury toll, but coughed up too many balls from handling errors, with captain Brian ODriscoll himself being guilty of losing four.

“We haven’t managed any victories on this tour and of course that is what you are judged on. We’d call it a learning curve,” O’Driscoll said. “We wanted to put a bit of pride back into our defensive game as we let ourselves down against New Zealand.

“Although we had a couple of lapses against Australia, we were fairly solid. The lads will now enjoy four or five weeks of holidays and try to freshen up for next year.”

If you’re an Ireland fan, are you more than satisfied with the fight your side put up or do you think three losses on tour is unacceptable, and they should have won at least one match? For the Aussies, or Wallaby fans, how do you rate your chances in the upcoming Tri Nations?

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