MY PRE-MATCH hope for a competitive performance was certainly realised on Saturday against the Australians. A vastly improved Irish side would not have been flattered by a share of the spoils against the least impressive Australian team to have played at Lansdowne Road for quite some time.

The tourists were disappointing in many areas but none more so than their back play. The retirement of Michael Lynagh has made the problems caused by the retirement of Nick Farr-Jones even more acute. Neither of their successors had a happy outing on Saturday and it was ironic that their out-half David Knox scored the crucial try having been so unimpressive in general. At 33, he hardly represents the future of Australian rugby.

The referee, Brian Campsall from England, missed an obvious Irish penalty for obstruction by the Australian backs just prior to their try. This was surprising as he had penalised them for a similar infringement shortly beforehand.

The Irish looked like a different side from the team which lost to Western Samoa but then again, in many positions, it was a very different side. However, the improvement cannot be attributed entirely to personnel changes. Everybody recognises that Irish teams in almost every sport perform better as underdogs. Even professionalism is unlikely to alter completely that aspect of our national character.

The pack, as I had expected beforehand, were well up to the task. In fact, the new laws suit the Irish forwards. With sufficient preparation they are good enough to take on any of the five nations. The front row looked extremely comfortable and I regret we were unable to create more scrums near the Australian line.

Keith Wood led by example and had an extremely good game. I hope for his sake, however, that we stop asking him to run from such deep positions. It makes him an easy target. With his pace and football ability I would prefer to see him running on to passes from the backs closer to or even over the gain line. There is a limit to the amount of punishment that anyone can take.

Paul Wallace played very well and was unfortunate to be penalised in dubious circumstances for the score which drew Australia level. Nick Popplewell appears to have lost the acceleration which made him so exceptional some years ago. His attempts to run from the back of rucks are now less effective. In general, we probably tried to pick and run from slow rucks on too many occasions against a side whose defence probably represented their greatest strength.

Both second rows played well and Jeremy, Davidson, in particular, lost little in comparison with John Eales

The entire back row played their hearts out. I'm sure that David Corkery is kicking himself for giving away the penalty early on near the Australian line. I also felt that he made a mistake when breaking from a maul which was moving comfortably towards the Australian line late in the first half. His solo run left him isolated. But how incredibly hard he works!

In the first half we seemed determined to kick into the Australian half. We did this even when there was an obvious overlap. We must be prepared to run the ball when the opportunity presents itself.

Instead we found ourselves trying to run it when it wasn't on, which led to the Australian try. Even allowing for the fact that the departure of Jim Staples must have disrupted the pre-match plans and preparations we did not look comfortable with the ball in our hands in the back line. Time and again we ran back towards the pack and there appeared to be a marked reluctance to play towards the open field.

Whether or not changing personnel in the back line would improve this is debatable. A change of attitude towards back play in Irish rugby in general is probably required.

We must be more positive when we have the ball. The forwards certainly produced sufficient on Saturday to result in a couple of tries. In reality, we made very little of the possession and, apart from the early line-out on the Australian line, the scrum towards the end of the first half and one move in the second half which ended in a Paul Burke penalty, we created no try-scoring opportunities.

While the Australians were very disappointing overall they continue to have one of the best defences in the game. All 15 seem capable of defending in whatever position they find themselves. Their physical strength allows them to commit the minimum number of players to tackles and pile-ups. We, on the other hand, seem to get sucked in in numbers.

Their strength also allowed them slow down the Irish rucking and, as the game went on, increased the number of turn-overs.

I suspect the Australians were surprised with the ferocity of the Irish rucking early on. They obviously intended to carry the ball downfield against the wind but the early Irish resistance made them think again and adopt a far more conservative approach.

Their obvious relief when Knox scored the decisive try was, in itself, a compliment to the Irish side who, at that stage, were very much in the game and had aroused the passions of the home crowd to a degree that we haven't seen at Lansdowne Road sing Gordon Hamilton scored his famous try against the same opposition in the World. Cup quarter-final.