For a day and a half Ireland were on top in this match. They enforced a follow-on, but MCC steadily built up a second innings score and the match petered out in a dull draw. MCC had some new players. TM Cordaroy had played for Middlesex, Norman for Northants and Leicester and had been a frequent visitor to Cork. James, as a freshman at Cambridge, had scored a century against the Australians in 1956. More and Thompson were the Scottish players and Needham and Evans were young professionals. Millett was Capt. and a very out of form Roy Marshall also came. The MCC plane was diverted to Shannon and they arrived in Cork at 3:30 AM.

Ireland selected the side which had originally been chosen for the match against Scotland at the end of 1975. On the morning of the match Torrens cried off with a shoulder injury and was replaced by TA Parker. The latter, making his debut, had a first day like something from "Boys Own". He scored 53* at number nine and took a wicket with his second ball. Then he was dropped for the next match!

Reith and Short gave Ireland a start of 70. Thompson bowled well on the slightly damp wicket. Friday in Cork was very wet and although the first day of the match was hot and sunny some water had got on the wicket despite a tarpaulin cover. Evans and James did not impress as bowlers. Millett had a go and finally, at 70, de Ville came on with leg spin and got Short with his first ball which Short tried to cut. 70-1-33. Harrison was not at ease. At 106 Reith gave a stumping chance to More off de Ville when 54. 100 had come in 107 minutes and Reith got to 50 in 110 minutes. At 111 de Ville struck again when Harrison played a poor back shot at a googly to give More a second catch. 42 overs had been bowled by lunch when the score was 121-2, Reith 63 Anderson 5. Needham and de Ville continued. At 129 Anderson sailed down the wicket to de Ville and was stumped and at 166 Reith repeated this operation. He had played very well for 79 in 169 minutes. Thompson had come back at 153 and had O'Riordan LBW at 176 on one that kept low. Corlett joined O'Brien and was dropped by Thompson at long leg when six and the total 185. Shortly afterwards the de Ville-More partnership worked again when Corlett was stumped for 16. 195-6 was not enough and the middle order batsman had been careless. Monteith came in and scored a bright 21 in 37 minutes before being LBW to Evans who had replaced Thompson. O'Brien was playing very carefully and was 19 at tea. Parker was 2 and the score 237-7. These two in all put on 66 in just under an hour. O'Brien held his end and allowed Parker his head. de Ville had been off for a while and when he came back Parker hit him for six over mid-on. Evans and Thompson came back with the new ball at 261 but it made no difference to Parker. Needham came back and had O'Brien caught at slip for 46 with the total on 296, a very intelligent innings. It was essential that he should stay in if 300 was to be achieved. Parker went to his 50 with a six off Needham, (71 minutes), and the declaration came at 324-8 at 5:30 PM. The runs came off 103 overs. de Ville took 5-115 in 29 overs and bowled a mixture of good balls and bad balls. More played on to Parker on his second ball. At the close the score was 26-1, Cordaroy 10 and Norman 14. After Corlett and Parker, Monteith had bowled the 10th over and Halliday the 13th.

The second day was overcast and the wicket was taking spin but slowly and not with much bounce. Parker and Corlett had a short bowl but Monteith was on at 58 and Halliday at 70. With the score on 89 Norman was caught off Halliday for 52 made in 108 minutes. The hundred came up in 140 minutes. At 117 Cordaroy was out to an extraordinary catch by Corlett off Monteith. Cordaroy popped one up the wicket. Corlett raced from gully, dived an incredible distance and caught it two-handed in midair. Next ball Groves was caught at slip. Marshall suffered a similar fate with the total 137, this time being caught by Reith in the outfield and Reith repeated the act off James when the score was 139. Both wickets fell to Monteith and this was the score at lunch. Millett and Needham got to double figures but two more wickets each to Halliday and Monteith saw MCC all out for 162. The innings lasted 74.1 overs. In 29 overs Monteith had taken 5-49 and Halliday had taken 4-54 in 25.1 overs.

Just after 3 PM More and Cordaroy were in again, following on 162 behind. This time there was a long hot grind for the Irish bowlers. O'Riordan pulled a muscle and could not bowl. He left the field for an hour and handed the captaincy over to Corlett. Monteith and Halliday were again on early but this time met with no success. Tea came at 82-0 in 29 overs. Corlett then had a long bowl with Monteith who had changed ends. Reith seemed to miss two chances offered by Cordaroy off Corlett at 105 and 119. Cordaroy went to his second 50 in 118 minutes. He slowly added six more runs before being LBW to Corlett with the score at 137. Meanwhile, More had added 50. Playing very well he was up to 90 by close of play which came at 153-1, with Norman on 28. The close came 20 minutes early due to bad light, the captains agreeing to end at this point.

The third day was short, just under five hours. It was difficult to see a result with MCC still nine behind, unless someone cut loose or Ireland gave away runs. Neither happened. Corlett and Parker started but Monteith came on at 162 and Halliday at 177. After batting 37 minutes for eight, More was LBW to Halliday, pulling at a not so short ball. He made 98 out of 183. He had never made 50 for Scotland against Ireland. Marshall made a brisk 22 and was caught at slip with the score on 220. Norman was very passive but Groves hit 24 in 41 minutes. Corlett and Parker came back with the new ball. Groves was caught by Colhoun at 256 and James at 287, one before and one after lunch. At 296 Norman's long stint ended when he skied Parker to Anderson. His 63 occupied 199 minutes. Millett and Needham were both bowled by Corlett.

Ireland were left 26 minutes and 20 overs to get 164. They lost the opening pair to Millett and the game was given up as a draw after 15 overs in the final hour. O'Riordan was off the field on all of the third day. Corlett gave himself a very long bowl from 251 to the close. He took 4-82 on a very hot third day.

Ireland's 324-8 was the highest ever score against MCC beating 305-4 at Strabane in 1934. MCC's 335-8 was four runs better than their 331 scored at Lords in 1883. Reith, in his 79, went to 1000 runs for Ireland in his 39th innings. This was the second fastest to this target after TG McVeagh's 31 innings. MCC with five scorers of over 50 equalled a record that had been achieved by MCC as Lords in 1959 and Scotland at Hamilton Crescent in 1968. A unique achievement against Ireland was to have two players each scoring two 50s in the match (Cordaroy and Norman). Ireland enforced the follow-on for the 14th time. Only once before was there a draw in such a case, Ireland winning the other 12.