Not a lot of change for the Wallabies with the only change to the team that beat England last weekend being David Pocock replacing George Smith in the starting line-up to play Ireland at Croke Park on Sunday. George moves back to the bench.

This means that the Reds midfield duo of Quade Cooper and Digby Ioane are paired together as a combination for the second week in succession. Having said that, Cooper spend a lot of his time at #10, swapping with Matt Giteau on a regular basis during the game. A ploy heavily used at the Reds when he partners Barnes. It worked for them on the day but the center  pairing will be tested on Saturday.

Matt Giteau suggested that Ireland’s Six Nations success relied heavily on the power of their attack and the authority provided by centre Brian O’Driscoll.

”When you look at the quality of the players they’ve got in their back line you’d be stupid to think they wouldn’t throw the ball around,” Giteau said. ”Ireland have got width but they’ve also got those big runners on the wings and in the centres where they’ve got good attacking runners.

”You saw on the recent Lions tours how influential Brian can be. He’s a player a lot of guys look to for that leadership, he’s got a certain aura about him, especially here in Ireland, and I think whenever guys play with him they get a lot confidence out of it.

”Individually, he can do big things at big moments.”

Well the Wallabies managed the first hurdle in their quest for a Grand Slam with relative ease, the game against the reigning Six Nations Champions will test them a little more than what England did.

Australia: 15 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 14 Peter Hynes, 13 Digby Ioane, 12 Quade Cooper, 11 Drew Mitchell, 10 Matt Giteau, 9 Will Genia, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 David Pocock, 6 Rocky Elsom (captain), 5 Mark Chisholm, 4 James Horwill, 3 Ben Alexander, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements: 16 Tatafu Polota Nau, 17 Matt Dunning, 18 Dean Mumm, 19 George Smith, 20 Luke Burgess, 21 Ryan Cross, 22 James O’Connor.

Date: Sunday, November 15
Venue: Croke Park, Dublin
Time: 15.00 (15.00 GMT; 02.00 AEST, Monday, November 16)
Referee: Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Christophe Berdos (France), Andrew Small (England)
TMO: Geoff Warren (England)