Australia 37 Ireland 15: Ireland's three match tour of Australia and New Zealand ended in bitter disappointment in Perth this morning as the Wallabies capitalised on defensive lapses to claim a decisive 22-point victory.
Having claimed the lead with two brilliantly worked scores from Ronan O'Gara and Rory Best early in the second half, Eddie O'Sullivan's side quickly surrendered the initiative as Australia exposed chinks in the Irish armour.
First Mark Gerrard breezed past John Hayes from close in to regain the lead for Australia before prop Greg Holmes outstripped the Irish cover, racing unopposed from the halfway line, to put daylight between the sides.
Their good work undone, Ireland ran out of steam in the final quarter and further tries from George Gregan and Cameron Shepherd may have flattered the Aussies but will leave no-one in any doubt that there is still much to work on before next summer's World Cup.
Brian O'Driscoll accepted fatigue had got the better of his side.
"We started well. We wanted to come in strong in the first 10 [minutes of the second half]," O'Driscoll said afterwards. "We fell apart because I think the legs got heavy. I think three weeks of rugby started to take its toll on the boys.
"It shows we have some way to go yet. We did a huge amount of defending in the first half but started well in the second half. Perhaps it flattered the Aussies a little bit but they took their chances well."
Australia opened their account with a 13th-minute penalty from Stirling Mortlock and then Chris Latham finished off a superb unbroken spell of play when he converted a left-wing overlap in the corner to make it 8-0, Mortlock missing the conversion.
The Wallabies lost Mat Rogers on 31 minutes with an ankle injury before O'Gara and Mortlock exchanged penalties to make it 11-3 at the break.
Ireland seemed invigorated by the rest and O'Gara, criticised for a poor missed tackle in the second test defeat by the All Blacks last week, set up and scored Ireland's opener. O'Gara's cross-field kick was collected by Shane Horgan, who fed inside to David Wallace. Wallace found O'Gara who fell over the line for the try.
He missed the conversion but eight minutes later Ireland took the lead with a superlative try from Neil Best. Best, the only member of Ireland's pack not from Munster's front eight, touched down after a fabulous break from Andrew Trimble to make it 15-11.
The Australians battled back with verve, Mark Gerrard restoring the lead when his dummy fooled Hayes and he touched down under the posts, Mortlock's boot making it 18-15.
Then giant prop Holmes collected a loose ball on the halfway line and sprinted clear to score under the posts, Mortlock making no mistake with the conversion to make it 25-15.
Gregan got the try he and the Australian pressure deserved on 69 minutes when he collected George Smith's pass and rode two tackles to cross.
Shepherd scored his first test try before his home crowd after a delightful pass from Stephen Larkham before Mortlock completed the scoring.
