Traditionally touring Southern Hemisphere sides arrive hereabouts for autumnal internationals in a heap, after long seasons and long-haul flights.
But, in contrast to last year when they lost to England after the additional baggage of a Lions series, Australia arrive recharged and refreshed after a mini off-season.
"A lot of our guys have had nine weeks off and didn't touch a footie for six of those nine weeks," admits their coach Eddie Jones. "So there's a different feel within the team compared to last year when we were mentally and physically jaded a little bit. But we won't be using fatigue as any sort of excuse on tour. We're in pretty good fettle, albeit with a few injuries."
Indeed Bill Young, Mat Rogers, Jeremy Paul and David Lyons have already been ruled out, and of their remaining walking wounded Owen Finnegan and Matt Burke are Australia's main concerns in advance of Saturday's meeting with Ireland at Lansdowne Road.
Paul and Lyons should be available for the England game on Saturday week, though Rogers's rib cartilage problem is both more of a concern and particularly frustrating for Jones, who had wanted to give the gifted former rugby league star an extended run at full back after half a dozen cameo appearances off the bench before the Argentina match.
The loss of the skilful and immensely mobile Paul means a probable first start at Test level for Matt Freier, the Australian under-21 hooker who has yet to play Super 12 after being plucked from club rugby - though he's been offered a contract with the Brumbies for next year.
Paul's injury compounds the absence of loosehead prop Bill Young, who returned to Sydney via Cape Town from Argentina last Sunday to be at the side of his wife Anna for the birth of their first child. In the event, by the time his plane touched down William Lawrence Young, aka Bill junior, was born.
Young will arrive in Ireland tomorrow, presumably tired, but ostensibly to link up for the English game.
In keeping with the Wallabies' enlightened approach to paternal leave, George Gregan will head back to Australia to be at the side of his wife Erica for the birth of their second child, though the Wallaby captain is expected to return in time to lead his side out at Twickenham.
The Wallabies dusted off their cobwebs with a workmanlike win over Argentina on Saturday en route here, though Jones understandably wasn't shouting from the rooftops of their Portmarnock Hotel base yesterday about the performance.
"I don't think any game where the ball is in play for 21 minutes (and that's out of more than 99 minutes' in total) is a good game of rugby. It was a pretty awful game of rugby but the history book shows we'd only won two of six games in Argentina before that, so it was a pretty fair result for us even if performance-wise it left us with a fair bit of work to do."
As for Ireland, both the quality of the videos and the "low-key" matches in Ireland's September programme have obliged Jones to take last season's form as a more reliable yardstick.
"They're probably the best prepared side in Europe at the moment.
"They've had the most time together as a team, and apart from Keith Wood it would appear that they're at full strength, so we'd expect a pretty cohesive performance from Ireland.
"They're a mixture of the Leinster, Munster and Ulster sides, all of which have got strong forward driving play and with (Brian) O'Driscoll in the backline they can do anything," said Jones.
Elaborating on the newly-installed Irish captain, Jones said: "He's got fantastic footwork, I think he's a real modern-day centre. A fair lump of a lad but fast on his feet, can step off both feet, he's got a good short kicking game which he's developed of late, and a pretty handy defender. So he's the sort of guy any international side would like to have.
"In one-on-one situations he's very hard to tackle. Particularly with the very systematic defensive lines we have now they're the sort of people you need in your side."
Jones also highlighted Ireland's home advantage by pointing out that "in Test matches this year involving the top 10 sides, 76 per cent of the games are going towards the home team."
Meanwhile, Denis Hickie will have a protective cast removed tomorrow.
"We will give him every opportunity to be available," Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan said. "His wrist has been in a plaster for over a week now to immobilise it. But we will not know if the cartilage damage has healed sufficiently until the cast is removed."
If Hickie does not make it, he will be replaced by either John Kelly or Geordan Murphy.
AUSTRALIA (probable): Burke; Sailor, Mortlock, Herbert, Staniforth; Larkham, Gregan (capt); Noriega, Freier, Stiles, Harrison, Finegan, Cockbain, Kefu, Smith.
