Australia captain Shannon Parry is ready to crank up the pressure on Ireland and spoil the host nation's party ahead of their World Cup pool C opener on Wednesday night [7.0pm].
The Wallaroos are first up for Tom Tierney's team at the Belfield Bowl, with Japan and France facing off 45 minutes later on the Billings Park pitch in UCD.
With only the three pool winners and best runners-up progressing to the semi-finals in Belfast, a good start is crucial. Parry is braced for a partisan crowd and pumped-up Irish outfit, but she's confident her side can use that to their advantage.
"It's a sold out crowd so it should be a really good spectacle of good, tough women's rugby," she told RTÉ Sport.
"The crowd is something that if you control it early and get on the board early... we really need to look to our leaders to make the right decisions at critical times, especially in the initial 20 minutes.
"If you can get a a win in that first win it can set up your whole campaign."
"It's a huge challenge, [playing] the host nation, but in saying that the pressure is on them. We're going to come in as the underdogs and do our country proud.
"Everyone is sort of writing us off and we're happy with that. There's no pressure on us. We're really looking forward to the challenge. We've got absolutely nothing to lose."
Parry had a three-year hiatus playing the sevens game - she won a gold medal in Rio last year - but she's returned to lead a youthful Australia desperate to upset.
They lost to England [53-10], New Zealand [44-17] and Canada [45-5] in a warm-up Test series before flying to Dublin. That form has many anticipating an Irish victory. For Parry, it's the perfect scenario.
"The girls really embraced me when I came back in and was named skipper," she said of her return.
"We've got a really good leadership group. We've been getting the spine of our team right on the field. All the pressure is not on me; it's distributed evenly across the team.
"If you can get a a win in that first win it can set up your whole campaign. For us everything has been focused on that Ireland game, making sure we're able to execute our plays at this crucial times to get the result we're after.
"You can seem how much the community has embraced the community being here and it's fantastic for women's rugby. There's always a lot of pressure on that host nation. It will be interesting to see how they handle it come Wednesday night."
Australia (v Ireland): 1 Liz Patu, 2 Cheyenne Campbell, 3 Hilisha Samoa, 4 Chloe Butler, 5 Millie Boyle, 6 Mollie Gray, 7 Shannon Parry (capt), 8 Grace Hamilton; 9 Katrina Barker, 10 Trilleen Pomare, 11 Mahalia Murphy, 12 Sharni Williams, 13 Kayla Sauvao, 14 Nareta Marsters, 15 Samantha Treherne
Replacements: 16 Emily Robinson, 17 Violeta Tupuola, 18 Hana Ngaha, 19 Rebecca Clough, 20 Alisha Hewett, 21 Fenella Hake, 22 Sarah Riordan, 23 Ashleigh Hewson
FIXTURES
Ireland v Australia, UCD Bowl, 7pm, Wednesday 9 August,
Ireland v Japan, UCD Bowl, 5.15pm, Sunday 13 August
Ireland v France, UCD Bowl, 7.45pm, Thursday 17 August
Watch all of Ireland's games live on RTÉ Sport and the RTÉ Player (ROI only), listen live on 2fm and follow live blogs on RTÉ Sport Online and the News Now app.
