Ireland give Farrell winning send-off in battling comeback against Australia

At the finish it wasn’t readily apparent who was at the end of another enervating season and who was not even at the halfway point. It can get like that when the margins are tight and the mind takes over.

For Australia, they were trying to get beyond break-even in their season, another brick in the defensive wall against the Lions next summer. Ireland were in much the same business: two from four this month would not have been a good look. They managed to avoid that stat.

It was on the home straight that the fresh legs of Gus McCarthy put some daylight into the game for Ireland. Despite a stack of mistakes, they just about deserved to edge home in front.

How appropriate for the Aussies that their spring tour, as they call it, should finish in spring-like conditions, but for much of the game it was like trying to light a fire with damp paper. At least by the final quarter there was some heat.

But when presented with this, do you persevere or start from scratch? Sadly the latter wasn’t an option but Ireland surely would have jumped at it.

At one stage, as the game lurched towards the half-time break, the home team had racked up 16 handling errors. In a sport as physical as rugby, there aren’t too many of them that fit into the unforced category, but this was freakish stuff. And yet they could have gone into the dressing room just a point behind instead of the cushion of eight which the Wallabies were sitting on to listen to Joe Schmidt.

Caelan Doris scores a try to put Ireland in front in the second half against Australia. Photograph: Evan Treacy/PA

The former Ireland coach would have implored his men for some more of the same, and for the courage to run from deep. It was their clinical attacking that gave them the game’s opening try, from Max Jorgensen, and the boot of Noah Lolesio that tacked on extras when Ireland opened the door.

But had Joe McCarthy, a couple of minutes before half-time, presented the ball better from a tackle under the Wallaby sticks then the hard-working Sam Prendergast would have been converting his team’s second try. The first had come from Josh van der Flier on 23 minutes, which the outside-half had failed to convert, an oddity for such a talented player.

McCarthy, however, missed his window of opportunity to do the right thing, and Ireland had to carry the load. The same player had been lucky to avoid yellow earlier when he opted to rise up to meet Rob Valetini instead of staying low, so it could have been worse for Andy Farrell in his final match with Ireland before he starts his loan move to coach the Lions.

He had seen his lineout splutter when it needed to be smooth – one costing Ireland an attacking platform five metres out – and the ripple of unease around the ground was unmissable.

Within 10 minutes of the start of the second half, it had eased on the back of a Prendergast penalty and Caelan Doris try under the sticks.

Suddenly it was 15-13 and the Wallabies needed to get back in business. A penalty from Lolesio fitted the bill to put the tourists back in front, and repeating the dose on 63 minutes put the home team back under pressure at 15-19 with 17 minutes to play.

However, Ireland dug deep into their reserves. Cian Healy arrived to break Brian O’Driscoll’s caps record with his 134th appearance and then the replacement hooker McCarthy’s try off a maul on 71 minutes was enough to make the game safe.