Thomas Clarkson reckons Ireland have as much reason to be hurt as Australia despite differing results last weekend.
Andy Farrell's side lost to New Zealand 11 days ago before beating Japan 41-10 thanks to a second-half surge.
Australia lost their opening November international against England 25-7 and then fell to a shock defeat to Italy last weekend, 26-19.
The Leinster prop who was called up to the British and Irish Lions as cover last summer said that just because Ireland got the job done against Japan doesn’t mean they are in the place they want to be ahead of a rematch against Joe Schmidt’s side and the visit of world champions South Africa on Saturday week.
Asked about a wounded Wallabies side arriving in Dublin looking to prove a point, the 25-year-old said: "Yeah but you could probably say the same about us, we were probably hurting after the last two games.
"We want to be better as a squad and it’s a massive opportunity for us to put some things right.
"Obviously, [I] didn’t play Chicago so can’t comment on that.
"Underwhelming a little bit against Japan.
"We wanted to go out and put on a performance to show that the previous day hadn’t been us.
"But we didn’t do that. So we are looking forward to the next two games, they are two really good teams who are coming here and we have a great opportunity to make a statement to the fans."
The Lions won the Test series 2-1 but needed a late try from Hugo Keenan in the second match to edge a clash that was way closer than almost everyone expected.
The Wallabies deservedly won the final Test before recording wins over South Africa (away) and Argentina in the Rugby Championship.
"Their backs were probably against the wall in the summer," Clarkson, who is in line for a tenth cap if named in Andy Farrell’s squad tomorrow.
"They lost the first few games and then they really had to win that third Test, and they did that.
"That proved launching pad for them and they picked up a few really good results in the Rugby Championship.
"And they’re definitely in a better place than they were at the start of the summer. It is good to see a good big rugby country back playing well.
"It’s going to be a massive challenge."
Clarkson (above) made his debut this time last year coming on as a replacement for Finlay Bealham against Argentina.
He started against Wales in the Six Nations and three of the last four Ireland internationals.
Asked how he feels he has improved, he replied: "Probably tried to simplify the game down a little bit in my head.
"Like I probably would have got overwhelmed trying to do everything perfectly and ended up doing nothing particularly well.
"So I just thought towards the end of the season if I'd pick three things that I was going to nail, it was gonna be ball-carry, tackle and scrum, and then everything else that came off the back of that, whatever happened, happened, and I think that was a good way of looking at it.
"I came off the summer [tour to Georgia and Portugal] and I just wanted to be involved in a few games now in November and then build on from there, just taking it one step at a time.
"I don't think there's much point thinking a few years down the line because when you start doing that, you don't take what's actually in front of your face.
"I just wanted to make sure that if I got opportunities, I took them.
"What actually is important for me as a tighthead playing well and getting picked is just simplifying it down in my head and making sure I nailed them."
The hosts led just 17-10 at the break on Saturday but three tries in the final 14 minutes against a tiring Brave Blossoms side put a sheen on the scoreline.
Ireland backs coach Andrew Goodman (above) says he is confident that a more complete performance is coming soon.
"I think every team in the world will be talking about getting off to a good start," said the Kiwi.
"It is big in Test matches, but it can't define the game.
"If they get a swing in the game we've got to make sure we're calm enough and stay composed to stay in the game for an 80-minute period, which I'm sure it's going to be not only this week but the next couple of weeks are going to be big games that are going to go right through the wire
"So we need to be ready for an 80-minute performance.
"We're looking at a bit of our backline, what we can control when we get the ball is around our passing precision and running lines.
"We did it well a couple of times on the weekend, but there's still massive improvements for us when we do get that clean ball as well.
"So it's been a part of the review that we'll go through as a backline and as an overall team attack to look at how we can make sure we're more consistent when we do get the ball and strike to score.
"And strike to get the defence in chaos.
"There was a couple of last passes where we created opportunities and a bit of support lines that could have been better, a bit of communication that could have been better, so it's not this one thing, there's a couple of things that we need to improve as a backline to make sure we do finish our opportunities."
Watch Ireland v Australia in the Quilter Nations Series on Saturday from 7pm on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on the RTÉ News App and on rte.ie/sport. Listen to live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1
