Ireland v Australia Preview And Prediction

Ireland and Australia will look to end their contrasting 2024 campaigns on a high when they meet in the final Test of the year in Dublin on Saturday (17:10 kick-off SA time), writes Quintin van Jaarsveld.

The Irish started the year by clinching the Six Nations before playing to a series draw against the back-to-back world champion Springboks in South Africa.

They’ve won two of their three end-of-year games, taking their 2024 record to 7-3 with their losses coming to England (23-22), South Africa (27-20), and New Zealand (23-13).

Since their surprise Autumn Nations Series-opening defeat to the All Blacks, which saw them surrender the world No. 1 ranking to the Boks, they’ve recorded successive wins over Argentina (22-19) and Fiji (52-17) but haven’t hit the imperious form that took them to Six Nations glory.

The modern Irish side fancy themselves intellectuals but have tried to be too clever in the Autumn Nations Series. They’ve focused too much on finesse and nuance and not enough on edge and good old-fashioned physicality.

Not since they took it to the Boks in their 25-24 win in Durban in July have they rolled up their sleeves and shown real grunt. It would serve them well to do so this weekend given how Scotland overpowered the Wallabies last Sunday.

Former Ireland coach Joe Schmidt’s first season in charge of Australia has been a tough one. They’re 4-6 and finished dead last in the Rugby Championship.

They’ve shown much improvement in the Autumn Nations Series, producing their best performance of the season to beat England 42-37 and followed it with a 52-20 trouncing of Wales. However, their Grand Slam dream died at Murrayfield, where Scotland well and truly burst their bubble with a 27-13 win.

The games against England and Wales were the first time the Wallabies scored 40-plus points in back-to-back Tests in 13 years, thus, Schmidt would’ve been gutted that his charges showed none of that attacking spark against the Scots. Worst still, their defensive woes returned as they missed more than 30 tackles and generally offered up soft shoulders.

To be fair, they did have a horror week of preparation, which was out of their control, and lost Matt Faessler and Jeremy Williams late to injury and illness respectively, but their effort levels should’ve been better.

The big question is, how much legs and motivation will they have for the season-ender at the Aviva with their Grand Slam hopes having been dashed? It’s a dead rubber, yet, in another sense, it’s a vital game that’ll impact interest levels in the British & Irish Lions’ tour Down Under next year.

In that context, the sport needs the Wallabies to be competitive come Saturday. However, Scotland showed these Aussies still have a lot of growing to do, which, coupled with the visitors having a six-day turnaround, leaves Ireland poised to pick up a comfortable win.

Prediction: Ireland by 15.

Suggested Bet: Australia +16.5 at 1.83.

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