Carbery and Henshaw unavailable for Aus clash

Ireland will have to contend with Australia without the services of Joey Carbery and Robbie Henshaw who have both been ruled out of the fixture through injury.

Flyhalf Carbery will be required to observe return to play protocols after suffering a bang to the head against Fiji while Henshaw picked up a hamstring strain.

Johnny Sexton, James Ryan, Andrew Porter, Josh van der Flier and Hugo Keenan, all of whom were injured in the win over South Africa, will be re-integrated as they return to fitness.

Ireland boss Andy Farrell was not impressed with his charges’ performance during the 35-17 victory over Fiji at the weekend.

"When you're missing so much, then people know they need to try to fill that vacuum, but they need the experience of being able to do that at the same time," Farrell said. "At least we know where we're at.

"I'm not worried, it is what it is. There's a lot of big characters who weren't in the changing room and I'm big on how certain people make people feel.

"We've different leadership going on this week in all sorts of areas and it's something we need to get to the bottom of and keep progressing with. Sometimes you get a performance and it leads you into a false dawn, doesn't it?

"It's good, especially off the back of a win, to get into the bones of it, to dig down deep and see what the reality is."

Looking ahead to this weekend’s challenge, Farrell said:

"You look at their side [against Italy] and they made plenty of changes, probably because they are looking at us this week," Farrell said of Australia.

"I know that it'll be a tough enough week at the start of the week, but it will certainly focus the mind and we know what's coming.

"Looking at their performance with a similar side that is probably going to be put out against us in Paris last week was probably more like it.

"They were very strong, especially set-piece wise, they went after the French and nearly got the big 'W' over there. That's the type of game we're expecting."