Rugby-Irish rustiness down to fixture imbalance, says Kidney

By Padraic Halpin

DUBLIN, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Irish rustiness in Sunday's 20-20 draw with Australia demonstrated the difference between battle-hardened southern hemisphere sides and their European opponents in the November tests, Ireland coach Declan Kidney said.

Australia, reaching the end of their season after Super 14 and Tri-Nations campaigns, dominated the match before Six Nations champions Ireland grabbed a last minute equalising try.

"What you saw today was a little bit of a difference between the northern and southern hemisphere fixture list," Kidney told a news conference.

"Australia played a good game, they put us under a lot of pressure and we were never really on the front foot but that's what you expect from a Tri-Nations side who have all been together for five months and we've had two weeks together."

Australian coach Robbie Deans said the Wallabies should have won a match which ended his side's tilt at a grand slam of victories over the four home nations at the second hurdle.

"Clearly it's a game that we could have and probably should have won," said Deans, whose side had lost six games from seven before last week's 18-9 win over England.

"Ireland were a step up from England. We probably stepped up our performance but we were a little bit conservative and narrow."

Australia did destroy an Irish pack containing seven players chosen for the Lions tour of South Africa earlier this year, with 21-year-old flanker David Pocock particularly adept at robbing any ball he came across.