RUGBY: Johnny Watterson talks to Irish prop Marcus Horan who is focused on claiming two big wins on the trot

The reality that Ireland dusted down a soft South African side, and Italy almost disrupted an equally scattered Australian team, may not work entirely to Ireland's advantage on Sunday. Wounded pride combined with threats from coach John Connolly that changes may be made to Australia's back line is usually enough to slap any Tri-Nations team into a capable unit.

From Irish coach Eddie O'Sullivan's viewpoint, Ireland desperately want to log back to back wins over two big names and as an assembly of players said yesterday at their base in Killiney Castle Hotel, moral victories no longer do it for them. The close-but-no-cigar mentality has been confined to the dustbin for this crop of players. South Africa, Australia, even New Zealand are in Ireland's sights with the cautious but prevailing view being: set them up and we'll knock them down.

Marcus Horan is among them and as the Australians gear up for the Lansdowne Road meeting, he is asking the team to produce the consistency that would see them deliver another performance like last week's and put in train the prospect of three autumn wins before refocusing on the Six Nations Championship. The fact Ireland haven't beaten Australia for four years is immaterial.

"While I haven't seen the Australian game yet, I obviously think they would be feeling they didn't perform," says the Irish prop. "But you don't want to take from the Italian performance. They are an up and coming team, a team that has been developing over the years. I think it's a tough place to go and win in Rome.

"As regards it (not performing) being a good thing or a bad thing, I think if Australia is feeling down about the game there will be a bit of a backlash there. They are probably going to come back at us very hard and try and prove their critics wrong.

"For us we've just got to concentrate on playing our own game and getting a bit of consistency into our play, trying to get two big wins on the trot would be super for us and we can't exactly dwell on the South Africa game. We have to try and pull out these performances on the trot."

The importance of stringing together wins shouldn't be under played. While Ireland have traditionally been seen as a team that can pull the white rabbit out of the hat and beat a side they have no right to beat, they have been unable to do it in a sustained way. What the Australia meeting represents is the opportunity to show the big performances are more of a magazine clip that can be delivered on demand and not a one-shot blunderbuss that goes off according to what frame of mind the team is in going into a match.

"I don't know about levelling the playing field but what I do know is that we are a long way from where we were a couple of years ago," says Horan. "I don't think there is much fear with any of the players. I think we have come back from a tour Down Under where we were all very disappointed with the results. I suppose a couple of years ago you would have been happy with moral victories, maybe.

"I think it's a huge step by us that everyone was gutted after the first performance in New Zealand where we got so close and didn't get it. Even more so in that it was such a disappointing final game against Australia. That's a big step for us. At this stage of careers everyone wants results and wants to be winning big games."

Where to find victory against the Wallabies will come as much from homework as ability. While Horan hasn't seen the game against Italy, by Sunday he will have watched every aspect of the match that pertains to the frontrow, their preferred lines of running, attacking formations at set-pieces, in the loose. The science of rugby has an important place.

"You always have to review and analyse the opposition and we do a lot of that and I think that really helped us against South Africa," he says. "We tried to know them inside out, where they attack and what their weaknesses are. The same will be done for Sunday's match. We have to see where we can attack them, try and find their weakness. We've also got to be confident of what we bring to the table and what sort of plays we can pull off against them.

"They really try and throw everything at you early on, try to get off to a good lead and kill off your morale. They can be exceptional when things click for them. But we need to get into them on Sunday, frustrate them and inflict our own patterns on them. It's going to be important for us to make sure our defence is tight and we will analyse them and see where that comes from."