Bundee Aki and Ross Byrne give Ireland hard-fought victory over Australia

Ross Byrne landed a dramatic late penalty as Ireland overcame the loss of their captain, Johnny Sexton, to cap a stellar year with a disjointed 13-10 win over Australia.

The replacement fly-half Byrne nailed a difficult kick from wide on the right with just three minutes remaining in Dublin to earn Ireland a record-equalling 12th successive home victory.

Andy Farrell’s men struggled for large parts of a disappointing contest and could easily have ended 2022 with a serious reality check against opponents beaten by Italy just last weekend.

The Ireland centre Bundee Aki marked his return from an eight-game ban with the opening try but the game remained in the balance in the closing stages after Jordan Petaia crossed for the Wallabies.

A difficult evening for the Irish began with the talismanic Sexton withdrawing through injury. His deputy, Jack Crowley, booted five points on his maiden Test start before Byrne, who was elevated to the bench at the 11th hour, proved to be the match-winner.

Victory for Ireland saw them become the first nation to defeat New Zealand, South Africa and the Wallabies in a calendar year since England in 2002. Sir Clive Woodward’s men went on to lift the World Cup the year after and that remains the ultimate goal for Farrell’s side looking ahead to next year’s showpiece tournament in France.

Farrell was far from pleased with what he witnessed in last weekend’s underwhelming 35-17 win over Fiji and – Sexton aside – welcomed back a host of players from injury as part of eight alterations.

The world coach of the year nominee would have taken little encouragement from a painfully stop-start encounter littered with sloppy errors, penalties and exchanges of possession.

Ireland defended doggedly in the