After two hearty World Cup starters, welcome to the main course on this Saturday morning. The crunch Pool C game at Eden Park between Ireland and Tri-Nations champions Australia. And big news for the Wallabies, flanker David Pocock misses out with a back strain suffered in training on Friday.

The Leinster trio of full-back Rob Kearney, flanker Sean O'Brien and prop Cian Healy all return from injury while provincial team-mate Eoin Reddan is back at scrum-half. Australia have recalled wing James O’Connor, who was suspended at the end of the Tri-Nations for breaching team protocol, after his try-scoring effort off the bench against Italy. He replaces the injured Digby Ioane.

Australia wing Adam Ashley-Cooper: “We took a lot out of our last two performances, against South Africa in Durban and against the All Blacks in Brisbane. To win such an important tournament has created a lot of confidence and belief in the squad. But we've put that behind us because these are new challenges. Ireland are going to be tough. It seems to me that games are being won around the 60-65 minute mark. We expect a pretty tight encounter right up until then."

Ireland coach Declan Kidney: "This is grand isn't it? It's what we're in this sport for. On Saturday we'll be playing Australia in the World Cup for the fifth time. They're the team in our group seeded above us. This is the one we are really looking forward to. This is the one there's no problem getting yourself ready for. You have to back yourself and back your belief. There is the big performance we need in this team, we just have to make sure we don't force it out of ourselves."

Ireland have gone off the boil of late and they need their mojo back. Quickly. They finished third in the Six Nations, they lost all of their warm-up games against Scotland, France (twice) and England, while they were made to work for their opening World Cup victory against the USA. Australia, however, are on a high - winning the Tri-Nations while cutting loose in the second half to beat Italy 32-6 in their World Cup opener.