Ireland scores late try to beat Australia 33-31 at Nations Championship match in Sydney

SYDNEY -- Flyhalf Sam Prendergast kicked a conversion with three minutes left, after replacement forward Thomas Clarkson scored a try, to give Ireland a 33-31 victory Saturday over Australia in their Nations Championship opener.

At a sold-out Sydney Football Stadium, the Wallabies led 24-19 at halftime after early tries by Dylan Pietsch and Jock Campbell. But the Irish stayed in touch through touchdowns from Cian Prendergast and Josh van der Flier, with Jamison Gibson-Park scoring a try on halftime to keep them in the match.

After the lead had changed seven times in the 10-try match, Ben Donaldson had the chance to give Australia the winning points, but he pushed a penalty attempt wide from more than 40 meters in the final seconds.

The match marked the start of the end of Joe Schmidt's coaching era at the Wallabies and close to the beginning of the Les Kiss era. Under Schmidt, Australia was winless in its tour to Britain late last year and was on a four-match losing streak.

Schmidt will stay on for two further Nations Championship tests against France in Brisbane next Saturday and vs. Italy in Perth on July 18. Kiss will officially take over on July 20 and is currently concluding his duties with the Queensland Reds Super Rugby side.

Kiss will make his debut as head coach in a two-test series against Japan next month.

In the Six Nations, the Irish had a 36-14 loss to France before a 20-13 win over Italy in Dublin.

The Irish then claimed their 15th Triple Crown, defeating England at Twickenham, Scotland and Wales and finished runner-up to France in the championship.

World Rugby bills the 12-team Nations Championship as North vs. South. The tournament has two conferences, the southern — in which northern teams are scheduled to travel south in July — and the northern — when southern teams will travel north in November.

Six rounds of matches will lead to a finals series in London in late November which World Rugby says will identify the best team in the world.

In earlier matches Saturday, New Zealand edged France 34-32 in Christchurch, New Zealand and Japan beat Italy 27-10 in Tokyo.

Goal-kicking fullback Takuro Matsunaga finished with 17 points for Japan. Home coach Eddie Jones did not guide the team — he was serving the last game of a four-match suspension for abusing match officials at an under-23 tournament in Australia in April.

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