O'Driscoll's men lose again

Ireland finished their summer tour with a 37-15 defeat to Australia in Perth yesterday.

The Wallabies scored five tries, through Chris Latham, Mark Gerrard, Greg Holmes, Cameron Shepherd and George Gregan, who won his 121st cap. Stirling Mortlock kicked 12 points.

Neil Best and Ronan O'Gara scored Ireland's tries, the latter adding a conversion and a penalty for a 15-11 lead before the home side took over.

"All three Tests have been hard," said Ireland's captain, Brian O'Driscoll, referring also to losses to New Zealand in the past two weeks, "but we felt we had the chance to take a scalp here. We obviously have a long way to go."

In Cape Town, Vincent Clerc's second try of the match sealed a 36-26 win for France against South Africa. France's other tries came from Clerc's fellow wing Cédric Heymans and Damien Traille, who was playing out of position at fly-half. Dimitri Yachvili kicked 10 points and Traille and Florian Fritz dropped goals. Brent Russell scored South Africa's try, and Percy Montgomery kicked seven penalties.

The Springboks coach, Jake White, cancelled the announcement of a contract extension before the game and is wanted by a number of European clubs.