SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – A Nations Championship opener doesn’t get much more dramatic than this. Tom Clarkson crashed over with minutes remaining to hand Ireland a 33-31 win against Australia in Sydney on Saturday (4 July) – a result that tells one everything about why sport is worth watching.

Australia will feel the cruellest kind of hard luck. They led 24-19 at the interval, dominated large periods of a frantic contest, and still came up two points short.

Ben Donaldson’s final-play penalty, which could have snatched victory, drifted wide – and with it went the Wallabies’ hopes.

It was their ninth defeat in their last 10 Tests, a miserable run for a side that gave everything inside a packed Sydney Football Stadium.

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Try fest

Yet for all the chaos and 10 tries shared across both teams, Ireland never stopped believing.

Andy Farrell’s side have now beaten Australia six times in succession since 2018, and Saturday illustrated precisely why – they absorb punishment, reorganise and keep coming.

When Clarkson burrowed over and Sam Prendergast slotted the conversion, that quality was on full display.

Ireland had arrived in Sydney undermanned. Rob Baloucoune’s hamstring gave out an hour before kick-off, pushing Jimmy O’Brien into the starting line-up.

The Wallabies, meanwhile, were stepping onto a Test pitch for the first time since a November defeat in Paris – fresh, hungry and backed by a raucous home crowd.

They delivered accordingly. Dylan Pietsch finished in the corner inside four minutes. Jock Campbell, returning to international rugby after four years away, sliced through for a second. Two more converted tries in a three-minute burst, through lock Josh Canham and scrum-half Ryan Lonergan, appeared to have put the game to bed.

‘Not perfect’

Ireland refused to accept that verdict. Cian Prendergast, Hugo Keenan, Josh van der Flier and Jamison Gibson-Park – the last of those a stunning effort on the stroke of half-time – kept the visitors in contention until Clarkson delivered the final word.

“Our discipline really hurt us,” admitted Australia captain Harry Wilson. “A team like Ireland makes you pay.”

Ireland skipper Dan Sheehan was measured in victory. “It wasn’t perfect by any means,” he said. “But you can’t buy the ability to close out a game like that.”

Next up: Australia host France in Brisbane, while Ireland travel to Newcastle to face Eddie Jones’s Japan, fresh from beating Italy 27-10 in Tokyo.

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