Ireland’s amateur Gaelic Football representative side staged an incredible comeback to claim a remarkable eight-point victory over Australia’s squad of professional Australian Football League stars in the first of two International Rules Test matches in Galway.


International Rules is a hybrid game developed from the Gaelic and Australian Rules games. While both sports are distinctly different, they do share much in common, being fast-paced running sports where both hand and foot are used move the ball. International Rules uses the rectangular field and round ball of the Irish game while some of the tackling and physicality of the Australian game is incorporated into the hybrid code. Scoring continues in the hybrid nature of the sport where both Aussie Rules and Gaelic scoring methods coming into play.

The scoring line resembles the four posts of Australian Rules but has the soccer-style net of Gaelic football between the two middle posts. Goals are scored in the netted area and are worth six points and can be scored by hand, body or foot (Australian Rules only permits goals by foot). A kick over the crossbar and between the two middle posts is called an “over” and is worth three points and kicks wide of middle posts are counted as behinds and are worth one point.

While the International Rules concept is criticised in some circles as irrelevant, boring and a waste of time, fans in both countries are voting with their feet with big crowds attending all matches since the series was revived in 1998. Saturday’s match - the first in Galway - filled Pearse Stadium to its 30,000 capacity.

With both sides wanting to avoid the heated scenes of last year’s series in Australia, the match as a spectacle struggled to reach any great heights in the first quarter. Australia struggled to adapt to the damp round ball and the Irish dominated, claiming a 16-4 lead by the first change of ends.

Australia began to settle in the second quarter and their defence began to choke up the Irish running game. In response, Ireland started to play a short chipping game that came unstuck on a number of occasions, the Australian tactic of kicking long to a tall forward stretching the Irish defence. At half-time Ireland led by seven points - but Australia looked far from beaten.

While Australia dominated the third quarter, both sides threatened the opposition net with
goalkeepers Alan Quirke (Ireland) and Dustin Fletcher (Australia) both forced to make desperate saves. While the Irish defenders were focusing their attention on tall Aussie forward Barry Hall, it was his Sydney Swans team-mates Nick Davis and especially Ryan O’Keefe who did the damage on the scoreboard.

O’Keefe, the game’s outstanding player, scored the first goal of the match with six minutes remaining in the third quarter. He teamed up magnificently with Davis in a series of hand passes that left Irish keeper Quirke in two minds.

Australia led by four points at the final quarter and with five minutes of the game remaining had doubled that advantage. But they made the fatal flaw of thinking the game was theirs - and stopped playing the style of game and had put them in front in the first place. Sensing an opening the Irish pounced, led by their own AFL star in Tadhg Kennelly, and scored a series of overs to claim the lead.
Then, with less than two minutes remaining, Australia’s Adam Selwood made a horrible turnover to Ireland’s Joe Bergin, who went on a brilliant solo run before drilling the ball past Australian keeper Dustin Fletcher to put the result beyond doubt.

With the winner of the two-match series decided on total points aggregate, Australia needs to win next week's second Test in Dublin by nine points or more to retain the Cormac McAnallen Trophy.

MATCH STATS
Ireland 1 - 12 - 6 (48) Australia 1 - 9 - 7 (40)

SCORERS: Ireland - Goal: Joe Bergin; Overs: Steven McDonnell 4, Paul Barden, Colm Begley, Joe Bergin, Alan Brogan, Sean Cavanagh, Dermot Earley, Graham Geraghty, Tadhg Kennelly.
Australia - Goal: Ryan O’Keefe. Overs: Ryan O'Keefe 3, Nick Davis 2, Barry Hall 2, Aaron Davey, Matthew Lappin.

BEST PLAYERS:  Ireland - Tom Kelly, Steven McDonnell, Kieran Fitzgerald, Joe Bergin, Kieran McGeeney, Alan Brogan. Australia - Ryan O’Keefe, Matthew Lappin, Dustin Fletcher, Nick Davis, Barry Hall, Kade Simpson.