Ronan O' Gara column: Can someone put the Hymac in reverse please?

Nothing characterises the Irish sporting psyche like our attitude to the respective Tests this autumn against South Africa and tomorrow’s Test against Australia.

Ahead of the South Africa game two weeks ago, people were fearful of a mauling. A one-score defeat was fine, thank you very much. Then we were underdogs. Now the country has flip-flopped to such an extent there appears a degree of certainty Ireland will roll over the Wallabies tomorrow.

We should be as fretful about tomorrow as some of us were confident two weeks ago. Joe Schmidt fears the new No. 3 world ranking might have come at a bad time. The Wallabies, coming off a loss in Paris, are at No 4. Joe’s becoming very Irish! Rankings are like GAA All Stars — they’re nice, but in the overall scheme, they don’t mean a whole lot. But it’s still better than being eighth and sweating on a World Cup seeding, that’s for sure.