Wallabies assistant coach Jim Williams, a man with intimate knowledge of Irish rugby, believes Australia will face the strongest available Ireland team in the two-Test series later this month.

Williams has joined the Wallabies coaching staff after holding a similar position at Irish club Munster, who recently won the Heineken Cup, the major trophy in European club and inter-provincial rugby.

Ireland finished only fourth in the Six Nations and didn't progress beyond the pool stage of last year's World Cup, but Williams and fellow assistant Michael Foley expect them to provide stern opposition in the coming Test.

While some northern hemisphere nations have dispatched woefully understrength teams to Australia in recent years, Williams stressed that wasn't the case with the current Ireland squad.

The team to play New Zealand in Saturday's Test in Wellington included seven Munster forwards and Williams thought it was probably the strongest Ireland could field, with the exception of Leinster centre Gordon D'Arcy.

He said Ireland would field a hardened side with their Munster connection in the forwards and four Leinster representatives in the back line.

"It's a quality side they are bringing out, I suppose maybe in the past the quality hasn't been there," Williams said.

"The likes of (lock) Paul O'Connell, (flanker) Denis Leamy, (hooker) Jerry Flannery in the forward pack, with (props) John Hayes and Marcus Horan, they are quality players coming off a great season.

"(Centre and captain) Brian O'Driscoll is going to be there, (five-eighth) Ronan O'Gara is at the top of his game and (halfback) Eoin Reddan and most of the guys like (winger) Shane Horgan, so that's a world class team they've got there.

"They come off a difficult season with the Six Nations and the World Cup, but they will certainly want to finish the season on a high."

Foley noted the Irish scrum performed well against Italy and France during the Six Nations and expected this month's Test to answer questions about Australia's effort in that area following a disappointing last outing in the World Cup quarter-final against England.

"There's been a fair bit of water under the bridge since then particularly in regards to the Super 14 and the improvement in some guys," Foley said.

"We've already talked about (prop) Ben Alexander, a guy that's come from a little bit outside the loop, but (NSW props) Matt Dunning, Benn Robinson and Al Baxter have all improved pretty significantly".

Foley clearly isn't a fan of the pulling down the maul law which will be among the Experimental Law Variations, which will be trialled during the Tri Nations series.

"It's a law everybody has got to adapt to, I'm not quite sure what the point of the law is to be honest," Foley said.

"I don't know if I'm supposed to say that, but allowing people to pull down mauls, we just take it in our stride," Foley said.

He doubted whether the Wallabies would experience any awkwardness in going from playing under some of the ELVs during the Super 14 series to performing under the old laws in Tests over the next few weeks.

Williams, who has yet to be involved with a team playing under the ELVs, said he would need to get up to speed in that area.

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