Excellent Luke Murphy injury-time try, converted by Sean Naughton, means championship will go down to final weekend
Ireland’s Sean Naughton celebrates kicking a conversion with the last kick of the game to force a draw with Hugh Gavin.
A kick that went out on the full and a pilfered lineout underlined Ireland’s nervy opening but Murphy’s penalty on eight minutes reduced the deficit to 7-3. However, within three minutes they gave Kerr another chance from the kicking tee and the centre landed it with aplomb. Ireland’s ability to get McLaughlin away on edge was underpinned by superb long passing from Murphy, Hugh Gavin, and Wilhelm de Klerk but the mistakes kept coming; fortunately, the home side were a bit loosey-goosey too, handling errors costing them some decent field position deep in the Irish 22.
Discipline at the breakdown needed to improve as did some of the first up tackles but the visitors were in the mix. O’Connor’s break should have led to Ireland’s third try but his pass to McLaughlin was high and behind him, but it mattered less when the former Gonzaga pupil got the try he deserved soon after.