Head coach Andy Farrell believes Ireland must produce their best performance of the autumn against Australia in order for him to go into his British and Irish Lions sabbatical on a high.
The Englishman is due to temporarily depart his regular role following next weekend’s November finale in Dublin as he prepares to lead the 2025 Lions tour against the Wallabies.
Ireland dispatched Fiji 52-17 on Saturday after beginning this month with a sobering 23-13 defeat by New Zealand and a stuttering 22-19 success over Argentina.
Australia’s upcoming visit, which will bring former Ireland boss Joe Schmidt back to the Aviva Stadium, has been arranged as part of celebrations to mark the 150th anniversary of Ireland’s inaugural international match.
“As you would expect me to say, the best is yet to come – it has to be,” said Farrell.
“We’re playing against a buoyant Australian side that play some really nice rugby.
“But the week’s going to be a special one for us. It’s going to be a marked game for the 150th anniversary.
“We talk a lot about the shirt and what it means for us. It’s going to be a big week coming up.”
Having left his coaching position with England in 2015, Farrell relaunched his career as assistant to Schmidt before succeeding him as Ireland boss following the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
New Zealander Schmidt has already led Australia to victories over England and Wales this month after replacing Eddie Jones in January.
“He’s been very quiet actually,” replied Farrell when asked if he has been in contact with his former boss.
“He’s been busy though. I’m sure when he lands over here we’ll touch base.”
Ireland comfortably overcame Fiji thanks to two Mack Hansen tries, plus further scores from Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier, Craig Casey, Bundee Aki, debutant Gus McCarthy and Ronan Kelleher.
Farrell made seven personnel changes for the match, including handing first caps to McCarthy and flanker Cormac Izuchukwu and a maiden start to fly-half Sam Prendergast.
“I’ve always said it about the competition for places, we need to give people the opportunity to create that competition,” said Farrell, who is likely to recall his regular starters next week.
“Again, a lot of players have got a lot of potential. It’s how they use it with the experience that they’ve just had.”
Speaking of the performance, captain Doris said: “I think it’s our best of the three (this month). It felt pretty dominant out there.
“A good start to the game, similar to last week, and the message at half-time was to have a ruthless start to the second half and to kick on.
“Our attack hasn’t quite fired in the second half over the last couple of weeks but it was good, we got a few tries off the back of it.
“There was a bit of an onus on some of the older, more experienced guys to take a bit of a load off the younger guys.”