Frustrated Sexton warns of 'relentless' Cheika and Farrell plots how to beat Aussies

Johnny Sexton thinks the second Test against Australia in Melbourne will be just as physical as last week’s 18-9 defeat in Brisbane.

Australia’s line speed caught out Ireland several times, with several notable hits including one by Michael Hooper on Joey Carbery.

“We expected it, any team under Michael Cheika will bring that and we spoke about that. We know him better than anyone really, so we knew it was coming. We probably didn’t deal with it as good as we could have, in terms of allowing them to come out of the line and hit us the way that they did.

“We will learn from it and I am sure they will bring the same intensity this week. Michael is a pretty relentless character and he is will demand the same of them this week.”

Sexton was on the bench for the first Test, with Carbery given his first start since the November internationals against Fiji.

“It’s not something I’m used to for Ireland, I’ve done it a couple of times with Leinster, that is why you want to start. It is all about starting for everyone really, you want that starting place.” Sexton said.

Defeat snapped a 12-game winning run for Joe Schmidt’s side, while players such as James Ryan and Bundee Aki suffered their first ever international defeats.

“We are performance driven, even if we had sneaked a win on Saturday the review would have been the same.”

“I think you learn a lot when you lose. We try and learn through winning, I think it was something we did quite well during the Six Nations, we improved even when we were winning, which is a sign of a good team. Now we have to bounce back, we have show a reaction, we have to perform a hell of a lot better than we did last week.”

“Look we could go out and play absolutely brilliantly this week and still not get the right result because we are playing Australia. We are playing against a very good team, very good players and that is the nature of coming down at the end of the season and playing Tests down here. At least let’s play at our best and see where that gets us.”

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Meanwhile Andy Farrell has given a positive update on Keith Earls – “At this stage all good.”. The Munster winger is the only injury doubt for Saturday and is undergoing the graduated return to play protocols following his HIA.

Farrell says the players are hurting after their loss, but expects a reaction.

“As you would expect a good side to take a defeat like that, they’re pretty angry, grumbly, walking around like a bear with a sore head.” Farrell said.

“A couple of meetings and they understand the reasons why – as individuals and as a collective – of why certain things happened. You forge a plan and once you have a plan in place you head forward. The key for the rest of the week is working out how to hold them back.”

Farrell wasn’t overly critical of his players but Ireland’s defence coach wants improvements come Saturday.

“(We were) decent at times, but that’s not good enough at this level. They’re a very, very good attacking outfit, and we knew that before the Test. We knew that they were going to be hard to contain, we felt that we did that by and large but you have to be consistent with that. They hit you on the break very well.

“They play quick, especially at the breakdown. We have things to work on, but by and large to keep them to keep them to a couple of tries isn’t too bad because Australia are pretty used to scoring tries. Having said that we need to be better at the weekend.”

Israel Folau’s aerial prowess caused Ireland several problems and it’s something the Grand Slam champions are keen to address.

“They had a plan and it was a great plan and they backed themselves with it. Is it a 50/50 when the ball is in the air with him, probably not, he is so good at it.”

“There are things that we can do much better. You can say that we can put pressure on the kicker and we can, but from time to time they are so deep you can’t get there anyway. It was the accuracy of how we got into the air, we let him dominate the space even more so than we should have. He had it a little bit too much his own way. Like I said, is it a 50/50, probably not, but we’ve got to make sure we’re around for the scraps if not.”

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