Wallabies assistant coach Tom Donnelly admits the team needs to sort out their breakdown if they are to unleash their explosive backline weapons against Ireland.
The Australians have settled into the cold and wet in Dublin, eager to bounce back following a tough loss to Italy.
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On that day, the Italians frustrated their counterparts around the ruck, winning five attacking penalties and stifling their speed of play.
It was a similar theme against England, with Donnelly understanding the forward pack needs to be better at cleaning it up.
“I think the last two games our ball has been really slow around the breakdown and that’s helped with us not creating space for our ball carriers,” Donnelly said.
“We just have to try and create quicker ball, and do that by our ball carrier being really accurate with his detail and our cleaners and then our speed to clean, to identify threats and get rid of them.
“If we can get quicker ball, all of a sudden we'll be able to play with more space.”
Donnelly could see the improvements throughout training in the greasy conditions, which the side have become familiar with throughout the season, famously defeating the British & Irish Lions in Sydney in conditions that forced both fields off the field due to the weather.
“I thought we were very accurate with what we did today, even with the tough conditions,” he remarked.
“Our carry clean detail was some of the best we've had for a number of weeks, so there was some really good intent, but accuracy as well, I thought we were doing.
“We're very used to [the wet conditions]. If you look at a lot of our test matches this year, we've actually been in wet conditions, so the lads are very, very able and understand what we need to do if the ball's a bit wet and a bit greasy, and how we play in those sort of conditions.
“So we're pretty confident, whatever the conditions are, we just have to adapt them and play what we need to.”
Donnelly confirmed prop Angus Bell and flyhalf Carter Gordon are continuing to progress positively as they deal with a shoulder and quad issue, respectively.
“I haven't checked in with the medical since I finished training, but just from my eye, they both seem to be through training well with no complaints,” he added.
