View from Down Under: Wallabies ready for Irish but still have an eye on the Lions

Joe Schmidt's evolving Australia side will round out their tour in Dublin on Saturday. 

WIRED FOR SOUND: Joseph-Aukuso Sua'ali'i at the Aviva Stdium on Friday. INPHO/Andrew Conan

IN many ways, it was mildly remarkable the Wallabies and their fans were crestfallen after a loss to Scotland last weekend - which abruptly ended their hopes of completing a grand slam tour of the UK and Ireland.

The romance of matching the feats of the fondly-remembered 1984 Wallabies, on the 40th anniversary, no doubt played a part in driving the optimism.

But when looking back at where the Wallabies were just a year ago, the idea that the first Australian team to ever miss the Rugby World Cup finals would be back up north, and being talked about as a chance to sweep the world's second, sixth, seventh, and eleventh sides - in four weeks - would have been seemed like madness.

And yet, there we were, asking the question: can this Wallabies team finish off the grand slam? Are the Wallabies back?

The answers turned out to be no, and maybe.

Scotland pricked the Wallabies' bubble with ruthless efficiency at Murrayfield, and showed they're a dark horse in the Six Nations next year with a smart, clinical performance.

So the Wallabies have arrived in Dublin and as far motivation goes, grand slam chat has given way to need for the Wallabies to finish the tour with a strong showing, given they pack up their tents next week and don't get back together until the Lions arrive in Australia next year.

That was always going to be Joe Schmidt's priority anyway.

When the New Zealander took the Wallabies job on earlier this year, when many wouldn't have touched it with a barge pole, the goal of winning a grand slam would have never been discussed.

Instead, it was always about getting the Wallabies back in fighting shape to meet for the Lions next year, and it's in that context that the real importance of the Australia-Ireland clash on Saturday can be found.

There are many interesting sub-plots. The Star Wars-style showdown of Master and Apprentice - Schmidt and Farrell - has had more than its share of column inches, and despite the buddy-buddy niceties, the competitiveness of both men is what got them to their respective roles. A win this week, in Dublin, would be among the sweetest either have tasted.

The fact they'll do battle again next year on the big stage of a Lions tour throws even more fuel on the fire. Could this be, in effect, the first of a four-Test series, where Schmidt uses some bluff and double-bluff around strategies will he may want to use next year in Australia? Or not use, as the case may be?

Will Farrell seek to follow Scotland's lead and emphatically shut down the emerging strengths of this Wallabies team; a metaphorical "I see you Joe" that could sew doubt and send his old boss back to the drawing board for the Lions?

Might Ireland's players, too, use the opportunity to one-up their Wallabies rival as a compelling audition for selection?

All will unfold on Saturday and, suddenly, in a Test that appeared to have lost steam when Scotland beat Australia, the tension and stakes have a nice edge again.

If the world rankings hold true and Ireland get the win, however, how will the whole Wallabies Autumn tour be regarded in Australia?

Many pundits said pre-tour that a 50% win rate would be a pass mark, so on that front, the reception will still be positive.

But those two wins were seen to be most gettable in Cardiff and Edinburgh, and the fact that the Wallabies knocked off England at Twickenham changed the entire picture - and not just in Australia.

It's not too much to say that the Wallabies' thrilling win over England lifted the game out of same serious doldrums in Australia.

Many around the world will have seen the scores and the rankings slide over the past two years, and rightly asked questions about whether the days of Wallabies' success were gone for good. They were being asked in Australia, too.

There, the post-World Cup mood was despondent. There had been a steady and gradual drop from the glory days for Australia over the decades but the game plunged off a cliff after Jones' deployed a high-risk strategy for the 2023 Rugby World Cup, where he ditched senior players and took the most inexperienced Wallabies squad ever.

It backfired badly, and in a domestic market where rugby faces daily competition from the rival codes, Aussie Rules and rugby league, the calamity only served to deepen its public fall from grace.

Schmidt's decision to take the job lifted spirits and re-inserted hope - based on what he'd achieved with Ireland.

Schmidt brought back many of the Jones' discards, and trialled a huge amount more players, and the team grew steadily through the year.

But as Schmidt has often said, growth is never linear, and though he believed the team were improving, they were usually limited to one good half. In Argentina, the good half saw them race out to a 20-3 lead. The bad half saw the Wallabies concede 50 points and a record defeat.

But after almost beating New Zealand next start, the Wallabies arrived in London and the world again rolled its eyes when they went down by two tries early. Here we go.

The Wallabies rallied, however, and the history books show Max Jorgensen scored a match-winner in the 84th minute. With NRL recruit Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii also starring on debut, the Wallabies were suddenly back in the national conversation - and in a good way.

The Wallabies' win over England also put an end to the fears bubbling up in the UK and Ireland - and not without justification - about the Lions series being a damp squib. In one perception-altering afternoon at Twickenham, the world saw that the Schmidt still has what it takes to pull off a rebuild, brick by brick.

The Schmidt connection, and a huge Irish diaspora, means Ireland rugby is hugely followed and hugely respected in Australia. Many jumped on Ireland as their second team at the Rugby World Cup, loving the scenes in Paris of clinical wins and Cranberries singalongs.

They'll understand the difficulty of beating Ireland in Dublin. But they'll also expect the Wallabies to compete with Ireland in Dublin.

The job only gets harder next year when many of those Irishmen will be wearing red.

*The author is a sportswriter with the Sydney Morning Herald