Ireland lost their fifth international in a row when their injury ravaged team lost to Australia 22-15 in Brisbane on Saturday.

The defeat raising further questions about whether the current team has finally gone over the top.

Afterwards captain Brian O'Driscoll said that after the heavy defeat against the All Blacks, Ireland had done much better, especially defensively, against the Australian side that also had many players out through injury.

O'Driscoll,incidentally, will be married in Ireland next week when he returns from the Down Under trip

With the win Australia bounced back from last week's defeat by England.

They scored the game's only tries through Luke Burgess and the man of the match Quade Cooper, who was the difference between the two injury-ravaged sides.

Ireland coach Declan Kidney picked relative newcomer Jonathan Sexton instead of veteran Ronan O'Gara and the Leinster out-half played very well scoring all of the Irish points.