As anti-climaxes go this was something of a bloodless coup. The Wallabies lorded it from start to finish, Ireland were never really in the match offensively and yet not until Ben Tune's slickly conceived try after 77 minutes was the class divide underlined and a more realistic gloss painted on the scoreline.
Whereas at Twickenham on Saturday there'd been a clear case of statistics, damned lies and statistics, this time they fell short of the truth. The official Unisys stat sheet claimed the Aussies crossed the gain line 32 times to Ireland's eight, and gave the ruck count to the Wallabies by 74-36. And if Ireland won 36 rucks, pigs have been flying since Christ was a carpenter.
If they actually did, they were rarely strung together over even three phases, while Tom Tierney had to excavate for an abundance of slow ball.
The comparison between Ireland's well-drilled and effective low-rucking in Perth and here was as chalk is to cheese.
Coach Warren Gatland admitted that Ireland may have taken their eye off the ball here in not concentrating more on this aspect of their game during the week, hence David Wilson was once more a persistent thorn in Ireland's side.
By comparison, the Wallabies' ruck ball was as high on quality as it was on quantity. On a trickily windy day, they were content to recycle repeatedly at close-range, with George Gregan and Stephen Larkham laying the ball off and the runners being supported to the breakdown in numbers, thereby putting both the crowd and Ireland out of the game.
Their runners didn't just offer themselves up as straight targets either. Frequently they either took a step or showed the ball, and invariably had decoys beside them, so that he usually took two or three Irish tacklers into contact as well.
You couldn't fault the Irish tackle count, nor their courage. The likes of Trevor Brennan, Malcolm O'Kelly, Andy Ward and the rest continually put their bodies on the line, and though battered and bruised - and a little fella - the targetted David Humphreys stood up excellently.
His tactical kicking and re-starts were good too, while Eric Miller showed up well when Ireland started belatedly to go forward a bit in the final quarter. But the best defence in the world didn't have too much trouble in keeping their try-line intact for the second game running (they've now conceded just three tries in their last six games).
It was classic finger-in-the-dyke stuff. Ireland couldn't raise a gallop. They needed all guns firing on all cylinders, but Peter Clohessy was missed, Dion O'Cuinneagain seemed to be affected by his shoulder injury, Tom Tierney sometimes encapsulated Ireland's anxiousness with the ball and Conor O'Shea was tortuously moved around the pitch.
How Ireland kept the damage down to just 3-0 entering first-half injury-time was a minor miracle, and to a mere 6-0 lead at the break. Twice early on, they had scrum ball in the middle third with which to establish some kind of territorial footing. On the first occasion, O'Cuinneagain held the ball in twice until it wheeled and then Paul Wallace was penalised at the third put-in. On the second, Tierney kicked out on the full.
Australia needed no such invitation, controlling the throw-in and the flow of ruck ball. It would take Ireland 22 minutes to set up their first ruck ball of the game. However, after kicking Australia ahead, Matt Burke contrived to miss from between half-way and the 22; John Eales also missing the mark before landing one in injury-time.
Meanwhile, Burke spilled the ball with an opening ahead, and Humphreys stealthily wrestled the ball from Horan after Tune had stepped inside Matt Mostyn to lead a break-out which the ubiquitous Wilson and the lively Richard Harry continued. They over-complicated a straightforward overlap when Dave Giffin crossed and were penalised for obstruction, while the Eales penalty was the result of a try-saving, if high, tackle by O'Shea on Larkham.
Two failed long-range efforts by O'Shea and Humphreys were mere token gestures by the home side, yet somehow they were still in the game - on the scoreboard if not in their minds. More Aussie continuity saw Burke stretch it to 9-0 upon the resumption.
Ireland might have had a penalty under the Aussie sticks after the Kefu-Brennan dust-up. Instead, they needed another source for something special. Enter the bald fella.
Making the Irish play of the game, after Brennan had made a try-saving tackle on Burke and Eales had knocked on, Wood utilised the advantage to daringly step inside Burke from behind his own line, break out and launch a towering punt along the touchline.
O'Cuinneagain and Bishop gave chase to nail Tune, and when Australia killed the ball, Humphreys opened the Irish account.
There it closed too, and the Wallabies moved further into the black. Inexplicably, referee Clive Thomas gave Australia a put-in on their own 10-metre line after Humphreys had snaffled loose ball on the deck; and another day you might have cared. But not this one. Kefu seemed to knock-on with the pick-up too, but in any event he and Harry made the inroads before Horan drifted around Humphreys off the recycle.
Ireland could make nothing of close-in set-pieces, before Gregan's reverse pass put Joe Roff through the Irish line of defence, the classy Horan providing the link for Tune to finish it off with a typical flourish.
