O'Gara saves tired Ireland

Only an 80th-minute penalty by Ronan O'Gara saved Ireland from the ignominy of a first-ever defeat to Canada at Fletcher's Field in Markham on Saturday and that was the most they deserved from an error-strewn, lethargic, end-of-season performance.

That is partially an excuse, so too the laissez-faire performance of referee Joel Dume. When three incidents of Canadians joining the tackle situation from the wrong side went unpunished, one suspected that the French official's style would be far more suited to the Canadian's disruptive spoiling tactics on the deck in rucks.

That said, the home team looked the better side for much of the first half and large tracts of the game. Winston Stanley made hay from deep, Morgan Williams' sniping and quick taps often shredded the green line, the bulwark Rod Snow led the way up front and Gregor Dixon unveiled all his skills as Canada's sevens' captain with the most eye-catching performance of any forward on view. They will understandably be the more disappointed not to have won.

Ireland made more wrong decisions and more handling errors in this game than they had in the previous half-dozen, appearing complacent from the outset and exhausted by the finish.

After 10 minutes, when a Canadian scrum wheeled to the left for Philip Murphy to pick up and go, the last five forwards to the breakdown 10 metres away were the Irish tight five. When Ronan O'Gara kicked long moving into the 75th minute, Shane Horgan and Kevin Maggs valiantly chased up but were outnumbered by the counter-attacking Canadians. Looking back down the pitch their nearest teammates were 30 metres off the pace.

To recover from Scott Stewart's 76th-minute penalty after Kyle Nichols was tackled late by Mike Mullins with a match-saving penalty of their own, as in recovering from a 21-8 deficit at the break and 24-16 deficit in the last quarter, was at least something commendable.

Keith Wood, a rare failure last week, had more to motivate him than most and it showed, for along with the penetrative Mike Mullins he carried a lot of ball, though possibly over used and heavily marked. The replacements saved the day, Paul Wallace improving the scrum and capping off a mobile display with a crucial try, while Bob Casey's introduction made the other locks' efforts look what they were - sluggish. The back row were blitzed and the half backs will want to consign their off-colour performances to history.

Hesitant from the start, many of the unforced handling errors emanated from the indecisiveness and loose passing of Peter Stringer and David Humphreys. The game was crying out for the introduction of Guy Easterby and Ronan O'Gara, who provided more control as well as Easterby's sniping threat in the prelude to Wallace's try.

In addition to Mullins (one of the undoubted successes of the tour), Shane Horgan was his usual rumbustious self with the ball and looked dangerous every time he got it. Dominic Crotty, not surprisingly given the mess going on around him, had a mixed game though counter-attacked well at times and grew into the game.

The ominous signs began within the first minute. Humphreys' intended pass off the opening recycle was unintentionally intercepted by Justin Fitzpatrick as Ireland attempted to run back the kick-off. From the scrum, a blind-side pass went to ground and threw the defence off kilter. The elusive Stanley picked up, stepped out of Andy Ward's tackle and ran through a big gap before stepping inside Crotty for a pathetically soft try from an Irish perspective.

Ireland tried to get their continuity game going but off static ball and with little penetration, yielding a penalty from Humphreys, Ireland over-committed to a ruck and were outnumbered once Stewart emerged with the ball. Nichols' half break, Dixon's diagonal run and switch back inside for Mark Irvine ensured a try-scoring offload for the supporting ex-Irish schools' player, Philip Murphy.

Horgan's burst up the blind side and Kevin Maggs' good line up the middle, supported by Simon Easterby, enabled Horgan to complete a try-scoring move off eighth phase from Humphreys' skipped pass.

But the Irish were opened up again after Crotty bought a dummy from Dixon, though admittedly Sean Faugh's pass to Stewart was blatantly forward before the outhalf collected his own chip ahead to score - then landing his third conversion for a 21-8 interval lead.

Five minutes after the break Crotty won turnover ball in the tackle outside the Irish 22, Wood probed the blind side before putting Justin Bishop away from inside half-way - the winger tweaking a hamstring as he scored.

It still needed replacements, especially at half back, to galvanise the Irish; O'Gara traded two penalties to Stewart's one before Guy Easterby sniped off his younger brother's tap down and passed sweetly for the supporting Paul Wallace to score from 25 metres out and taking two tacklers short of the line.

Then came the final trading of penalties to ensure a not-so-honourable draw.

Scoring sequence: 1 min: Stanley try, Stewart con 7-0; 7 mins: Humphreys pen 7-3; 21 mins: Murphy try, Stewart con 14-3; 26 mins: Horgan try 14-8; 34 mins: Stewart try and con 21-8 (half-time); 45 mins: Bishop try 21-13; 57 mins: O'Gara pen 2116; 59 mins: Stewart pen 24-16; 62 mins: O'Gara pen 24-19; 65 mins: Wallace try 24-24; 76 mins: Stewart pen 27-24; 80 mins: Stewart pen 27-27.

Canada: W Stanley; M Irvine, N Witkowski, K Nichols (capt), S Fauth; S Stewart, M Williams; R Snow, P Dunkley, J Thiel, J Tait, E Knaggs, G Dixon, P Murphy, R Banks. Replacements - D Baugh for Banks (30 mins).

IRELAND: D Crotty; S Horgan, M Mullins, K Maggs, J Bishop; D Humphreys, P Stringer; J Fitzpatrick, K Wood (capt), J Hayes, M Galwey, J Davidson, S Easterby, A Foley, A Ward. Replacements - P Wallace for Hayes (32 mins), R Casey for Galwey, G Easterby for Stringer, O'Gara for Humphreys (all 54 mins), E Miller for Ward (72 mins).

Referee: J Dume (France).