Ireland coach Adrian Birrell said his World Cup rookies would be looking chiefly to avoid an annihilation by world champions Australia in their Super Eights match today.

Australia beat second-tier teams Scotland and the Netherlands by the huge margins of 203 and 229 runs in the group stage and Birrell knows his men need to be right on their games to avoid a similar mauling.

"We are under no illusions, tomorrow's going to be tough. They are the best side in the world and they are going to come out and try to annihilate us," Birrell said yesterday.

"We are going to have to play very good cricket but we do have it in us to do that. We've only really had one bad game (against New Zealand) and even in that there were many pluses.

"We're going to be speaking to individuals to be selfish and try to put up a good performance against Australia, which is the biggest game of our lives," he added.

"We want our best team out there. It's a dream for everyone and we want to put up a good show."

The match provides a dream opportunity for Ireland captain Trent Johnston, who was born in Sydney and played six first-class games for New South Wales.

Opener Jeremy Bray, who played for Australia under-19s and opening bowler Dave Langford-Smith, a former Australia under-17s player, were also born in Australia and are keen to impress.

"It's a special feeling for me but it's also a special feeling for the other 14 guys in the squad," said Johnston.

"To come up against the world champions as they are looking for a third title in a row - they're in awesome form - it's going to be special.

"There are also another couple of Aussie-borns there but it's about the squad, it's not about us three guys. Hopefully, we can be very competitive in the game."

Ireland's main selection concern is still all-rounder Andre Botha, whose hamstring strain is not yet healed fully.

However, Birrell said the injury is getting better "slowly" and is "still a worry" but they will not make a decision on him until the last moment.

Australia will be assured a semi-finals berth with victory, while Ireland are all but eliminated after losing their first three Super Eights matches.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting may use today's game to give some of his lesser-used players a chance to see some action.

"It could happen tomorrow; there isn't anything set in stone at the moment.

"I've spoken pretty long and hard to the batting group throughout the tournament about this exact situation. We have to do what we think is right," said Ponting yesterday.

Ponting highlighted Andrew Symonds and Michael Hussey as batsmen who might move up the order to get some more time at the wicket ahead of their tougher final two Super Eights games, against Sri Lanka and News Zealand.

"Symonds finished the game off well for us the other day but really hasn't done a lot of batting while Hussey hasn't done a lot of batting at all.

"If the opportunity does come up tomorrow to be able to maybe put those guys up in a slightly different spot than they have been then we will have to seriously consider it," he said.

Ponting said the same approach could be taken to the bowling attack: "We have to look a little bit ahead of just this game - in case you have an injury."

While he may be willing to rotate the responsibilities against the Irish, the Australian skipper said there was no question of taking it easy against the weakest side left in the competition and is aware that playing a non-Test side carries different challenges.

"The biggest thing is you don't know a lot about their players. A lot of the other teams we play, our guys have played against most of them for five or six years of international cricket," he said.

"With sides like this, or Bangladesh or Scotland, you haven't got much footage of them, much idea of their strengths and weaknesses."

Ireland will feature three Australian-born players and the point was not lost on Ponting.

"We have some guys who weren't born in Australia and it is pretty normal in international cricket these days.

"I'm sure that will make them pretty keen to play well against us."Super Eights: Standings

P W L T P

Australia(1) 4 4 0 0 8

Sri Lanka( 2) 5 4 1 0 8

New Zealand(3) 5 4 1 0 8

South Africa(5) 5 3 2 0 6

England(7) 5 2 3 0 4

West Indies(6) 5 1 4 0 2

Bangladesh(11) 5 1 4 0 2

Ireland(13) 4 0 4 0 0