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Former Ireland head coach Eddie O’Sullivan fears a backlash from under-fire Australia in Saturday’s final autumn Test in Dublin.
Australia were stunned by Italy on Saturday having beaten Scotland but lost to France – all by one point – in their earlier autumn Tests.
In contrast, Ireland have defeated South Africa and Fiji in November.
“We are number one in the world, so if they put us away it would take a lot of pressure off them,” said O’Sullivan.
Australia finished third behind New Zealand and Argentina in this year’s Rugby Championship and have found life difficult against northern hemisphere teams in 2022.
Dave Rennie’s side lost their summer series with England 2-1 prior to the one-point defeats against France and Italy in November.
However O’Sullivan is concerned that Rennie’s inconsistent side will raise their game for their final Test of 2022 in order to put a gloss on what has been a difficult year.
“We’ve seen Australia in the last few years have highs and lows,” added O’Sullivan, who was Ireland head coach from 2001 until 2008.
“They have really been on a bungee-cord in terms of where they are.
“The thing that worries me this weekend is they are coming into the last weekend of their season off a bad result in Italy.
“They are probably heading home to a fair bit of criticism, but if they can put Ireland away – and let’s not forget that Australia are capable of those performances – they have put a target on our backs.
“I still think we should beat Australia but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a wee bit concerned that they weren’t going to pull out one big one heading into their last game of the year.”
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