Ireland will look to put a halt to the rampaging start Australia have made to their international season when they meet at Perth's Subiaco Oval tomorrow.

Following on from a positive two-Test tour of New Zealand, where they ran the All Blacks close in both matches, Ireland are hoping to cause the Wallabies more headaches than England recently.

While disappointed to leave New Zealand without a win, coach Eddie O'Sullivan is pleased with the direction the team is taking and believes they are a good chance of stopping the Wallabies.

But O'Sullivan was also wary that the Perth match may not come down to attack, but rather which nation defends the better.

"Both ourselves and Australia will be trying to run with the football, so I think it might boil down to which team has the best defence," he said.

Ireland will be looking to utilise their lethal backline and will be hoping centres Brian O'Driscoll and Gordon D'Arcy can outrun the Australian backs.

After a disastrous end to last season which saw Australia break records for losing streaks, the team has started the new season on the right foot with two strong victories over England to reclaim the Cook Cup.

But Ireland overcame the English in this year's Six Nations and are considered to be a much more dangerous opponent.

New coach John Connolly agreed with O'Sullivan that the key to Saturday's match will be defence.

"Defence does win matches," Connolly said. "Ireland squeeze a team very well, they've got very good defence and they squeeze mistakes out of teams."

The former Bath boss believes Australia will need to lift their game and eliminate those errors if they are to overcome the Irish.

"We're working on tightening our game up," Connolly said. "We were a bit loose against England, and that was brought about by how England played as well, with their 'east-west game'.

"Ireland play a more traditional game, and we have to tighten up, but we knew that."