Speculation was rife that O'Gara would take over from David Humphreys in the pivotal number 10 position and so it proved as the Irish coach has obviously decided to go for broke in an effort top lower the colours of the Wallabies.

A fit again Foley was always due to return once he had recovered from injury while Keith Gleeson comes into the back-row for the injured Alan Quinlan.

***Ireland s record against Australia is: Played 22, Won 7, Drawn 0, Lost 15, Points for 281, Points against 446.

Ireland v Australia Saturday November 1st 2003 Kick-Off in Ireland: 9:35am Kick-Off in Melbourne: 8:35pm

Ireland Team to Face Australia:

15 Girvan Dempsey (Leinster Terenure College); 14 Shane Horgan (Leinster Lansdowne) 13 Brian O Driscoll (Leinster Blackrock College) 12 Kevin Maggs (Bath) 11 Denis Hickie (Leinster St. Mary s College) 10 Ronan O Gara (Munster Cork Constitution) 9 Peter Stringer (Munster Shannon)

1 Reggie Corrigan (Leinster Greystones) 2 Keith Wood (Munster Garryowen) Captain 3 John Hayes (Munster Shannon) 4 Malcolm O Kelly (Leinster St. Mary s College) 5 Paul O Connell (Munster Young Munster) 6 Simon Easterby (Llanelli) 7 Keith Gleeson (Leinster St. Mary s College) 8 Anthony Foley (Munster Shannon)

Replacements: 16 Shane Byrne (Leinster Blackrock College) 17 Marcus Horan (Munster Shannon) 18 Donncha O Callaghan (Munster Cork Constitution) 19 Eric Miller (Leinster Terenure College) 20 Guy Easterby (Rotherham) 21 David Humphreys (Ulster Dungannon) 22 John Kelly (Munster Cork Constitution)