O'Driscoll denies Wallabies

Brian O'Driscoll marked his 100th cap with a last-gasp try to rescue Ireland a 20-20 draw against Australia at Croke Park.

Having toppled England at Twickenham last weekend, the Wallabies looked set to make it two wins from two in Europe thanks to Rocky Elsom's second-half try.

The visiting skipper, who helped Leinster to Heineken Cup glory last year, marked his return to Irish soil by going over in the left corner to break a 13-13 scoreline.

However O'Driscoll had no intention of losing on his landmark day, popping up at the perfect moment to make sure honours ended even.

Atonement

The centre galloped in next to the posts to leave Ronan O'Gara with a simple conversion and atone for a rare error that gifted Australia an opening try.

His century celebrations suffered an inauspicious start when a knock-on deep inside his own half offered Drew Mitchell an early Xmas present.

The winger gleefully accepted the gift by running in underneath the posts to get Australia off to a perfect start inside the opening two minutes.

Ireland did respond to the shocking start with a penalty from O'Gara to make it 7-3 before the contest resorted to a territorial battle of aerial ping-pong.

O'Gara and opposing number 10 Matt Giteau exchanged penalties before the visitors lost Wycliff Palu to the sin-bin, the flanker getting a yellow card for stopping the rampaging Rob Kearney illegally.

Ireland did their best to make the most of the extra man, spurning kickable penalties to keep hold of the ball, but their attacking intent yielded nothing on the scoreboard.

Control

Back at full strength at the start of the second half, it was Australia's turn to take control and win two penalties, though Giteau only managed to convert one of them, pushing the other wide to the right from straight in front.

The miss proved costly when Ireland grabbed a try on a rare foray forward. Debutant prop Cian Healy was the catalyst for the men in green with a fine run that led to Tomas O'Leary sending Tommy Bowe scampering to the line.

The status quo was soon resumed, though, with Australia producing phase after phase in attack to set up Elsom for a well-taken try in the left corner.

With Giteau converting from the touchline a seven-point cushion seemed likely to be enough. But O'Driscoll and Ireland had other ideas, hitting back at the death to make sure honours ended even at the end of 80 enthralling minutes.