“The neck lingered because I tried to rush back, so in the end we decided to take our time with it and I’ve been happy with it the last two games.”

The Wallabies backline made a strong start to the series with Folau at fullback and Rebels duo Marika Koroibete and Haylett-Petty on the wings. Playing alongside Folau was a welcome change for Haylett-Petty.

“I’ve tried to steer clear of his [Folau's] hip,” Haylett-Petty said. “It was great to run out with him and so many other quality players and as a backline we are still finding our feet with that as we only had six days to prepare.

“There are so many areas that we can improve on and some opportunities we missed out on, there will be subtle changes this week but we were very happy with the way things went.”

The Wallabies made good use of their aerial threat in Brisbane, putting up high balls for Folau.

Haylett-Petty’s wing didn’t see as much ball as Koroibete’s right side but he is expecting a busy night in game two.

“It was a little bit quiet down that left edge so hopefully if I get to play again this weekend I can get a little more ball,” Haylett-Petty said. “But playing those two Super Rugby games before this series gave me plenty of confidence coming in.”

The first Test loss was Ireland's first in 12 games, but they have star playmaker Jonathan Sexton and several other stars waiting in the wings after they were left on the bench in Brisbane.

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But Haylett-Petty backed the Wallabies to handle whatever is thrown at them in Melbourne.

“I don’t know if they will change too much, they have been so successful with the way they play,” Haylett-Petty said. “So I can’t imagine they will go and change everything after one loss - they do a lot of things that work well for them like holding the ball and building pressure.

“They had some quality players on the bench like Sexton who is one of the best in the world but I can't imagine they will change too much.”