Ireland equal home record

Dublin – Bundee Aki (above) scored a try on his return from suspension to help Ireland beat Australia 13-10 and secure a record-equalling 12th home Test success at Lansdowne Road on Saturday despite missing talismanic captain Johnny Sexton.

A late penalty by Ross Byrne separated the two sides in a dramatic climax to a match littered with errors.

The Irish will enter the World Cup year ranked No 1 in the world and are the first team since England in 2002 to defeat the All Blacks, the Springboks and the Wallabies in a calendar year.

England went on to win the World Cup in 2003 but based on this performance the Irish will need to up their game significantly even to make the semifinals for the first time.

“I’m absolutely delighted with the win,” said Ireland head coach Andy Farrell.

“We found a way and that’s what good sides do when they’re not at their best.

“We weren’t at our best for all sorts of reasons, things that we can address.

“We found a bit of luck but we came out on the right side and we roll onto the Six Nations.”

For Australia it was a third successive narrow defeat in the Autumn Nations Series – having lost by a point both to France and then in an historic defeat to Italy.

“We put pride back in the jersey 100% after the Italy defeat,” impressive Australian wing Mark Nawaqanitawase told Amazon.

“We’re definitely gutted. We got ourselves in the right position there.

“Discipline has been one of the things we’re working on and obviously it’s hurt us again – as a result, we’ve come so close.”

Sexton had been ruled out shortly before the teams came out, having injured his calf muscle in the warm-up.

The Irish put an incisive attack together – spearheaded by Doris – Aki rounding it off.

The visitors, though, hit back as Petaia went on his own despite an overlap and touched down – Foley converted for 10-10 with 10 minutes remaining.

The Irish retook the lead when Ross Byrne kept his nerve and landed a penalty with less than four minutes to play. –