Ireland, already blighted by injury after last weekend’s battle with the All Blacks, will give fitness tests to Sean O’Brien and Jared Payne on Saturday morning for their final autumn Test against Australia after they sat out Friday’s captain’s run at the Aviva Stadium.
Peter O’Mahony has been put on standby should O’Brien pull out of the back row while Rory Scannell would replace Jared Payne in the centre. That would leave Ireland without both the midfielders who started the two Tests against New Zealand this month with Robbie Henshaw, like Jonathan Sexton and Simon Zebo, ruled out after last week’s game, but the defence coach Andy Farrell expects the pair to recover.
“They have some niggles and the captain’s run is just a stretching-legs type session,” said Farrell. “We will see how they are in the morning and have a discussion. They both have lower-limb tweaks, things you pick up from a game and during the week. All the main work has been done already and we decided to give them more time.”
Victory over Australia would round off a successful month for Ireland which started with a first victory over New Zealand, one that was achieved with a flourish in Chicago that showed how they had developed since last year’s World Cup when they were run over by Argentina in the quarter-final.
Ireland’s record against New Zealand before this month was unimpressive but they have lost only two of their last five Tests against Australia who have won in Dublin once since 2005.
The Ireland captain, Rory Best, will win his 100th cap, and said that at the start of his career he would have been satisfied with two. “It is safe enough to say that I did not anticipate this,” said the hooker. “When you make your debut for Ireland it is a dream come true and all you want to do is get the next one so that you cannot be a one-cap wonder. It is something to reflect on when you retire but what is important this weekend is finishing a very tough autumn with a win.”
Ireland are looking to become the first European nation to defeat all three major southern hemisphere nations in a calendar year since Clive Woodward’s England did so in 2003. When Australia arrived on the start of their five-Test tour, they were seen as vulnerable after losing three times to both England and New Zealand.
Since starting with a thumping win in Cardiff, they have gone largely unnoticed with attention focused on the continued resurgence of England, the calamities of South Africa and what appears to be a campaign to stop Wales’s Rob Howley from being the Lions attack coach for a third successive tour.
Victory would take them to Twickenham next weekend on the trail of the grand slam and the probable chance of preventing England from going through the year unbeaten under their Australian coach, Eddie Jones. “It will be the toughest game of the tour,” said the Wallabies’ head coach, Michael Cheika, who has selected three lineout jumpers. “Our attitude has to be right against a very well organised side that is getting stronger.”
