Jonny Sexton’s return to the Irish backline to torment the Wallabies for the second time this year has been tempered with the likely loss of another Lions hero, Tommy Bowe.
Sexton is among a number of Irish big guns set to be taken out of cotton wool and start in Sunday morning’s (AEDT) intriguing Test at Aviva Stadium.
The France-based star playmaker was resting while fellow British and Irish Lions tourists Sean O’Brien and Paul O’Connell were on the bench for Ireland’s unimpressive 40-9 win over Samoa at the weekend.
But winger Bowe is rated no better than a “day-to-day” prospect by team manager Mick Kearney due to a painful calf injury that has ruled him out of training.
Ireland have also lost rising flanker Chris Henry to a hamstring problem following new coach Joe Schmidt’s first game in charge.
The win saw the Irish rise to No.6 on the world rankings, two behind Australia, and New Zealander Schmidt admitted “we’re a fair way off that”.
“We’re going to have to be twice as good as we were against Samoa,” he said, after they were split out wide a series of times early on.
While the Wallabies regularly take care of the Irish when they travel to Australia, they’ve failed to beat them in their last three meetings overseas.
Most painful was the 15-6 pool loss in Auckland at the 2011 World Cup, while a 20-20 draw in the last visit to Dublin in 2009 ended their shot at a grand slam and the 21-6 hammering in 2006 highlighted how Australian sides struggle in wet conditions.
O’Brien was a stand-out at Eden Park two years ago, turning the ball over at the breakdown and keeping ball-runners up in mauls.
But five-eighth Sexton also looms as a danger man after an superb performance in the Lions series-winning 41-16 third Test rout in Sydney in July.
Also intriguing is the battle of the coaches as Ewen McKenzie interviewed for the Ireland job after Declan Kidney was sacked following their dreadful Six Nations campaign.
Schmidt, who took Leinster to Pro-12 and European titles after assistant coaching jobs at Clermont and Auckland Blues, was always the favourite for the job while McKenzie was also the front-runner to replace then Wallabies coach Robbie Deans.
McKenzie refused to answer whether he would have taken the job if offered, but said it suited the IRFU to invest in the coaching style that worked for Leinster.
“You won’t find anyone to say a bad word about him,” he said.
“He excites the players and gets the best out of them so it’s a good situation for him and it’s a good situation for Ireland.”
