Australian reaction:Australia captain Rocky Elsom expressed his disappointment after his former Leinster team-mate and close friend Brian O'Driscoll denied his side the chance of Grand Slam on their European tour.

The Wallabies were on course to follow up their win over England when Elsom’s 62nd-minute try put them 20-13 ahead.

But, with time running out at Croke Park, O’Driscoll marked his 100th international with his 37th try for Ireland and Ronan O’Gara kicked the conversion to snatch a 20-20 draw.

Elsom said afterwards: “As much as we didn’t want to talk about it, it’s a very big occasion and it’s disappointing that we didn’t notch up a win there.

“If we had defended that last phase, we would have deserved to win but who would have thought, in his 100th game, Brian would come up with the goods?

“I thought we could have stopped that last play but they executed really well.”

Winger Drew Mitchell had given Australia a third-minute lead when he capitalised on a knock-on by O’Driscoll to score the opening try and Matt Giteau kicked the first of four goals.