Ireland 20 Australia 20:On the occasion of his 100th cap, it was perhaps pre-ordained that Brian O'Driscoll would have the final say against Australia. The Ireland captain salvaged a last-gasp draw against the resurgent Wallabies with a try in the 79th minute.
Australia’s pack dominated a first half in which wing Drew Mitchell's second-minute try, taking advantage of an overly-ambitious skip pass from Ronan O'Gara, helped the visitors to a 10-6 half-time lead.
Minute-by-minute commentary – as it happened
Australia's forwards kept the pressure on early in the second half but the home side woke up with a 56th minute Tommy Bowe try before Wallaby captain Rock Elsom powered home in the corner to restore the advantage five minutes later.
Bowe almost went over again in the dying minutes and O'Driscoll stretched the Six Nations champions' unbeaten run to nine, bursting through under the posts with the last play of the game.
Ireland's welcome home was short lived as Mitchell quickly opened the scoring. O'Gara, struggling for provincial form at Munster, asked a little much of O'Driscoll with a long pass deep in his own half and Mitchell picked up the dropped ball.
Matt Giteau added the conversion but O'Gara made amends a minute later, nailing his first penalty after Australia were penalised for offside.
The home side came back into the game and, despite Australia managing to turn over a number of strong home attacks, O'Gara got another crack in front of the posts midway through the half and reduced the deficit to a point.
The powerful Australian pack again easily tore through their opposing eight in the next phase of play and Irish scrumhalf Tomas O'Leary's blatent stray offside gifted Giteau the chance to restore the visitor's advantage to 10-6.
The outhalf was nearly in for a try minutes later but was stopped metres out by wing Luke Fitzgerald and Australia would have appreciated the added cushion all the more when number eight Wycliff Palu was then sin-binned for a dangerous tackle.
However, Ireland failed to make any inroads into their lead with Ronan O'Gara twice opting to play a penalty rather than kick at goal and Australia kept turning over possession easily as the 14 men survived until the break.
Elsom, back at Croke Park for the first time since helping his former club Leinster to a famous Heineken Cup semi-final victory over Munster in May, continued to lead the Australian eight's superiority as the game progressed.
However, it was fellow flanker, 21-year-old David Pocock, who did the most damage and was deservedly voted man of the match.
The Irish front row of Munster's John Hayes and Jerry Flannery, who had not played for over a month because of suspension and injury, and debutant Cian Healy came further unstuck as Australia kept the hosts pinned in their own half.
The dominance paid off as Giteau put away an easier opportunity to make the score 13-6 after 55 minutes
That cued an Irish fightback as the 22-year-old Healy, tremendous in the loose for Leinster all season, made a storming run to create the platform for wing Bowe to eventually cross for a try and O'Gara's conversion leveled the scores.
Elsom's try then appeared to be sending Australia on to Scotland and Wales in search of their first grand slam for 25 years before O'Driscoll yet again popped up to save the Irish.
