O'Driscoll the hero as Ireland draw

The Irish pounded away at Australia's line in a nail-biting climax to a thrilling contest and were rewarded by O'Driscoll's try with Ronan O'Gara adding the conversion from beneath the posts.

Rocky Elsom appeared to have won it for the Wallabies with his try in the 62nd minute, but Ireland refused to concede defeat.

Ireland's rustiness showed as early as the third minute when a poor pass by O'Gara caused the disastrous opening. O'Driscoll had to reach around his shoulder to gather the pass and was immediately tackled, spilling the ball into the path of winger Drew Mitchell who sprinted home.

The conversion was added by Matt Giteau but O'Gara replied with a penalty and shortly after Ireland were on the front foot when Cian Healy charged down Giteau's drop-goal attempt.

Giteau then missed a penalty before the tide turned in Ireland's favour. But with O'Gara and Giteau exchanging penalties, the scoreboard still belonged to the Wallabies who soon set about reasserting themselves on the pitch. Wycliff Palu was then sent to the sin bin for a poor tackle on Rob Kearney.

Thankfully for Ireland, Giteau had not brought his kicking boots as he sent a second penalty wide as Australia made a brisk start to the second half. Munster scrum-half Tomas O'Leary was penalised for feeding at the scrum and this time Giteau obliged with the three points.

Undaunted by Australia opening up a 13-6 lead, Ireland responded beautifully by scoring almost immediately. From the restart the impressive Healy came up with possession and marauded into space. They battered away at the line with Stephen Ferris and David Wallace making telling runs before Bowe eventually wriggled over with O'Gara converting to level the score.

Next it was Australia's turn to attack, Giteau and Quade Cooper firing miss passes to Elsom who barged over on the left corner. Giteau made the tricky touchline conversion, but after that it was all one-way traffic as the Wallabies were subjected to a ferocious late onslaught.

Tommy Bowe appeared to have wriggled over with two minutes to go but the TMO decided winger Peter Hynes had got his arms around the ball. But Ireland could not be denied seconds later, an O'Leary miss pass sending O'Driscoll in under the posts with O'Gara converting to level with the last kick of the match.