IRISH URGED TO HIT NEW HEIGHTS

Australia v Ireland Melbourne, Kick-off 11am

IRELAND captain Peter O’Mahony says the Grand Slam winners will have to produce their best performance of a great campaign to level their series with Australia in Melbourne today. After a 12-match unbeaten streak since March 2017, Joe Schmidt’s side came crashing down to earth with an 18-9 loss in Brisbane last Saturday. Now they have a chance to right the wrongs and bring the three-Test shoot-out to a finale in Sydney next week. O’Mahony said: “We understand we were beaten by a better team last Saturday and we’re going to have to put in a performance better than any we’ve put in over the last 18 months to beat this Australia team.”