Ireland manager Paul Earley took his hat off to Australia, saying his side struggled to cope with the accuracy and movement of their professional opponents in today's IRS test.

After watching his players finish 10 points behind the hosts, the Roscommon man admitted they gave the hosts too much of a headstart.

"Australia were incredibly accurate in the first quarter - I think they had nine shots at goal and kicked seven overs," he pointed out to gaa.ie.

"We were uncharacteristically wild with our kicking and we didn't hit our targets up front which we had worked on quite a bit.

"Australia's movement were very good and when we did get the ball coming out of defence, they dropped men back very, very quickly and made it difficult for us to hit our targets in the full-forward line.

"Outside of that first quarter we won the game. We changed things at half-time, pushed up and went man to man, changed our system and were much more competitive.

"When you look at all the key stats we won the contested balls, we won the contested marks and I think we beat Australia in the tackle count.

"But it's the scoreboard that counts and Australia were more accurate on the scoreboard today. They kicked 17 overs and that was a terrific return from them."

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