Jubilant skipper Brian O'Driscoll hailed Ireland's victory over world champions Australia by insisting tonight it meant more to him than beating them with the British Lions.

The centre could not have enjoyed a better first game in charge as the 18-9 victory at a sodden Lansdowne Road in Dublin brought the Irish their first victory over a top southern hemisphere nation in 22 years.

"The Lions was different," said O'Driscoll, who starred in the first Test victory over Australia two years ago.
"It is not as special as playing for your country which is the be-all and end-all of international rugby for me.
"But this is a great result for us. We have been the nearly men for a while and had come close against South Africa two years ago and New Zealand in the summer. The players in the dressing room are just elated.

"Now we have finally beaten one of the big nations will give us a huge boost in confidence. But this mustn't be a one-off we have got to start doing it regularly now."

O'Driscoll insists he will not have any problems handing back the captaincy to Keith Wood should the hooker be fit to face Fiji next week.

"I have already spoken to Keith and he is absolutely delighted for us," added O'Driscoll.

"He is a little bit disappointed not to be here, but he knows the big picture that Ireland have won a game against the current world champions. But I will have no problems handing over the captaincy to him. He is our captain but it would be good to do so with a 100% record."

Australian coach Eddie Jones admitted his side's defeat proved that they struggle in wet conditions - but will be praying for finer weather against England at Twickenham.

"We will have to get ourselves together for the game against England," said Jones, whose side have lost on their last two visits to Twickenham.

"We are looking forward to the game but the condition might be similar to this. It is definitely a weakness of ours that we struggle with the necessary skill levels in these sort of conditions.

"You do not come to Lansdowne Road expecting 15 degree weather and the sun baring down on your back. It was typical Irish conditions out there.

"We are not used to it and prefer a hard track. But we are not using it as an excuse for the result or our performance, Ireland were much too good.
"We came off second best today. Our skill levels let us down. We let ourselves get behind on the scoreboard and unfortunately could not come up to the mark.

Jones confirmed that lock Owen Finegan would miss the rest of the tour after revealing he would need 'complete reconstruction' of the right shoulder after dislocating it in a first-half tackle and being taken to a local hospital