Peter O'Mahony: We have to up our game from our Six Nations triumph to beat Aussies
Ireland captain Peter O'Mahony believes the Grand Slam winners will have to produce their best performance of a successful campaign to level their series with Australia tomorrow.
After enjoying a 12-match unbeaten streak since March 2017, Joe Schmidt's side were brought crashing down to earth with an 18-9 loss in Brisbane last Saturday.
Now they have a chance to right the wrongs of that performance and bring the three-Test shoot-out to a finale in Sydney next week.
And while they have enjoyed a superb campaign to date with wins over South Africa, Argentina, Wales and England, O'Mahony believes they must deliver something even better to beat the Wallabies at AAMI Park.
"Fellas are frustrated and upset, it was a record we wanted to hold on to," he said after leading his team's final training session at the Melbourne venue.
"But we're a team that understands that when something like that happens we have got to improve.
"It was up to us to have a good look at the game and see what areas we needed to improve on.
"We understand that we were beaten by a better team last Saturday and we're going to have to put in a performance that has been better than any we've put in over the last 18 months to beat this Australia team.
"The quality they have, their game-plan, they're one of the best teams in the world and we have to up our game from the standards we set in the Six Nations, which we certainly didn't do last week."
Ireland have made eight changes for the game, bringing the likes of Niall Scannell, Tadhg Furlong, Cian Healy, Devin Toner and Dan Leavy into their pack.
Australia coach Michael Cheika has kept faith with the 23 who delivered the win last week and his captain Michael Hooper is expecting something of a backlash as the tourists look to salvage the series.
"You've got a bunch of guys who want to come in and make a point," the Waratahs flanker said.
"No one likes missing out on a game, every player understands teams rotating and wanting to get game time for different players, so, if I was in their shoes, you want to come out and make a difference and I'm sure all their forwards are thinking that way.
It was a very physical game (last week), a great crowd up there in Brisbane and I'm expecting very much the same here tomorrow.
"And for it to go the duration, we expect it to go blow for blow throughout. They're such a class team, the Irish, and they'll be fired up. We expect them to bring out some real heat and good firepower throughout the game.
"We have to be able to weather that and also put ourselves on the field."
O'Mahony is expecting an improved Australia as the home side reap the benefit of another week together.
"Absolutely, they're one of the best teams in the world and every time you go out you want to better your last performance.
"They've had another week now to gel together, to build on it and we've no doubt that they'll be better than last week which is something that we have to prepare for and deal with."
Australia v Ireland, AAMI Park, 8pm local time (11am Irish Time).
Australia: I Folau; D Haylett-Petty, S Kerevi, K Beale, M Koroibete; B Foley, W Genia; S Sio, B Paenga-Amosa, S Kepu; I Rodda, A Coleman; D Pocock, M Hooper(capt), C Timu. Reps: T Latu, T Robertson, T Tupou; R Simmons, L Tui, P Samu, N Phipps, R Hodge.
Ireland: R Kearney; A Conway, G Ringrose, R Henshaw, K Earls; J Sexton, C Murray; C Healy, S Cronin, T Furlong; D Toner, James Ryan; P O'Mahony (capt), D Leavy, CJ Stander. Reps: R Herring, J McGrath, A Porter, T Beirne, J Murphy, J Cooney, J Carbery, J Larmour.
Referee: P Williams (New Zealand)
