Australia - 45 Ireland 16 Ireland's facility to implode under pressure was once again illustrated at the Subiaco Oval in Perth. The Grand Slam decider defeat to England at Lansdowne Road was supposed to be a watershed - the lessons absorbed and a resolution agreed that this squad would not fold like a cheap deckchair in the white heat of big matches.

On Saturday there were a number of mitigating circumstances: a harshly awarded penalty try, coughing up 14 points while a man short, a cruel bounce of a ball. But it should in no way camouflage Ireland's shortcomings. Good habits, allied to good technique and high skill levels, manifest themselves in pressure situations, when snap decisions must be made.

Omit one or some of those qualities and the outcome is rank option-taking, something of which Ireland were guilty on numerous occasions.

Australia's suffocating, aggressive defence is of a variety that will be prevalent in the World Cup later in the year and on Saturday's evidence Ireland must learn quickly to function under those conditions.

Australian coach Eddie Jones was bullish when confronted with the suggestion that the visiting team had coughed up several soft scores, preferring to attribute his team's tries to aggressive defence and a clinical exploitation of the chances presented. The truth is probably somewhere in between.

Ireland tackled on the back foot for most of the match, in marked contrast to their opponents, with one of two exceptions permitting the Australians to take the tackle on their own terms. This allowed the home side the momentum to pick and drive, and but for a couple of handling errors close in, it could have yielded a couple more tries.

In the first half, Ireland scrambled well in defence, notwithstanding the yawning gap left for George Gregan's first try and the fact that in buying the outstanding Elton Flatley's dummy, the Irish defensive alignment was filleted in one fell swoop.

Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan conceded: "We were disappointed about the first two tries because we didn't get our position quickly enough at the breakdown."

The communication levels between the back row and the half backs appeared somewhat askew - not helped by Peter Stringer's poor performance - as Australia exploited those channels. Stringer's unease - he'll know how much of it can be ascribed to his damaged thumb - ensured a scratchy link between backs and forwards.

The lineout malfunctioned, rectified after the interval, while the scrum was largely effective, a tribute to Marcus Horan and Reggie Corrigan, the latter making a decent fist of his unaccustomed role.

The fact that Ireland trailed by just a single point at half-time, 14-13, owed a great deal to Australian errors, some excellent scrambling defence and scoring the best try an Irish team have managed this season.

In that one passage of play, O'Sullivan's vision and blueprint for the future suggested that Ireland can become more than bit-part players in the World Cup. Ireland worked Australia right then left then right again before John Kelly cleverly looped around David Humphreys to step inside Toutai Kefu's tackle.

The problem for Ireland is that the occasional cameo of enterprising back play was strictly rationed as the visitors were starved of ball in the first half.

Australia dominated possession for 30 of the 40 minutes and the constant tackling was always going to leave Irish players drained when the game opened up in the final 20 minutes of the match.

O'Sullivan was satisfied at the interval: "I was pretty happy that despite absorbing a huge amount of pressure - our lineout didn't function well in the first half - we went in a single point down and probably scoring the try of the season for us. It is what we have been trying to achieve all year.

"That first half took a lot out of us. The score in the sin-bin period was 14-3 and that put the game out of reach. I think the penalty try was just a knife in our heart. I thought we should have scored a couple of tries. The punishment we took in the first half took a lot out of us and we looked pretty weary in the second half and that would have accounted for some of the errors."

David Humphreys, who enjoyed a decent 40 minutes, retired with a bruised bicep. In fairness to Ronan O'Gara, he was coming into a tiring team and too often was left with no alternative but to kick possession away, due to a lack of options.

Flatley, who controlled the game brilliantly at outhalf, kicked a penalty and there followed the pivotal moment of the game.

O'Gara launched a high, aimless kick down the centre of the pitch, Joe Roff, Chris Latham and Steve Kefu combined to bring play to within centimetres of the Irish line and the visitors were guilty of killing the ball. Girvan Dempsey, not the culprit, was sent to the sin bin; it was that sort of evening for the Leinster full back, who was completely out of sorts.

Australia, choosing a scrum, worked the blindside and Steve Kefu scampered over. Flatley converted as he would do again on 59 minutes, when Gregan's chip and chase culminated in a try, by virtue of an outrageously favourable bounce.

This passage of play had stemmed from another Irish error. At 31-16, it became a case of how much. Ireland just about averted their record defeat by the Aussies, 46-10 in Brisbane, but this was of scant consolation. Australia's last two tries were eiderdown soft.

In sifting through the debris of defeat, it is possible to note a few exceptional performances, notably by Victor Costello, Alan Quinlan, and Kelly, but even they will seem like a tired footnote to an evening that Ireland must not forget.

Frontline players will return, the end-of-season weariness will not be a factor, but Ireland have yet to prove they possess the capacity and mental toughness to thrive against the elite teams outside of Lansdowne Road for 80 minutes. They need to be more clinical, more ruthless and less content to kick the ball away seeking the comfy blanket of field position.

Goodness knows it's hard enough to get it back. Subiaco reinforced those truths.

SCORING SEQUENCE

4 mins: Humphreys penalty, 0-3; 14: Gregan try, Flatley conversion, 3-7; 29: Kelly try, Humphreys conversion, 7-10; 31: Flatley try, Flatley conversion, 14-10; 35: Humphreys penalty, 14-13. Half-time: 14-13. 43: Flatley penalty, 17-13; 52: S Kefu try, Flatley conversion, 24-13; 56: O'Gara penalty, 24-16; 59: Gregan try, Flatley conversion, 31-16; 66: Latham try, Flatley conversion, 38-16; 69: penalty try, Flatley conversion, 45-16.

AUSTRALIA: C Latham (Queensland); W Sailor (Queensland), M Tuirini (NSW), S Kefu (Queensland), J Roff (ACT); E Flatley (Queensland), G Gregan (ACT, capt); B Young (ACT), J Paul (ACT), P Noriega (NSW), D Giffin (ACT), N Sharpe (Queensland), D Lyons (NSW), T Kefu (Queensland), G Smith (ACT). Replacements: B Darwin (ACT) for Noriega 53 mins; D Vickerman (ACT) for Sharpe 57 mins; L Tuquri (NSW) for Sailor 60 mins; N Grey (NSW) for S Kefu 61 mins; B Cannon (NSW) for Paul 66 mins; P Waugh (NSW) for Smith 68 mins; C Whitaker (NSW) for Gregan 68 mins.

IRELAND: G Dempsey (Leinster); J Topping (Ulster), G Murphy (Leicester), K Maggs (Bath), J Kelly (Munster); D Humphreys (Ulster, capt), P Stringer (Munster); M Horan (Munster), S Byrne (Leinster), R Corrigan (Leinster), G Longwell (Ulster), M O'Kelly (Leinster), A Quinlan (Munster), V Costello (Leinster), K Gleeson (Leinster). Replacements: R O'Gara (Munster) for Humphreys 15-21 mins and h-time; E Byrne (Leinster) for Corrigan 51 mins; P O'Connell (Munster) for Longwell 51 mins; Corrigan (Leinster) for Horan 68 mins.

Sin-binned: G Dempsey (Ireland) 52-62 mins.

Referee: N Williams (Wales).