Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan said he still believes his team can beat Australia at this year's World Cup despite the 45-16 defeat to the world champions.
O'Sullivan said the result showed his team still had a long way to go to match the Wallabies but he had not given up hope.
"They are the world champions and we all realise there's a big gap," O'Sullivan said.
"We're six in the world and we're trying to bridge that gap but we need everything to go right for us.
"We think it's a one-off game at the World Cup and things we did wrong we can get right at the World Cup and that will change things dramatically.
Ireland beat the Australians in Dublin last November but were no match for the Wallabies on Saturday after their team was ravaged by injuries.
They managed to stay within one point of Australia at the halftime break but faded in the second half when Leinster fullback Girvan Dempsey was sin-binned for a professional foul.
"I was reasonably happy at halftime when we were only a point down. I thought we had weathered the storm and the game was still up for grabs," Jones said.
"The sin-binning and the penalty try really killed us off. We took so much punishment in the first half so we were a bit lead-legged in the second half but obviously the better team won.
O'Sullivan said his team would be better equipped to face Australia at the World Cup when all their top players are available.
"It would have been great to get a result here today but I'm not disheartened," he said.
"I think there are a number of factors that need to be taken in. We had a slightly weakened squad, we are at the end of our season and they put us under a lot of pressure.
Irish captain David Humphreys aggravated an arm injury that has troubled him for the past month and will miss Ireland's next two matches against Tonga and Samoa.
Humphreys said the injury was not serious and he was always planning to leave the tour after the Australia game so the management could experiment with some new combinations.
Ireland were heavily beaten by England in their last match and Humphreys said they had been hoping for a better performance against Australia.
"We wanted to prove that the England game was behind us and we were better than that," he said.
"The try we scored today was probably the best try we've scored this season, that's the style of play we're working towards, but due to our own unforced errors we weren't able to maintain that type of pressure."