Self-styled forward enforcer James Horwill says the Wallabies plan to fight fire with fire in Saturday night's Lansdowne Cup rugby Test at Melbourne's Telstra Dome.

In their first Test of the Robbie Deans coaching era, the Wallabies are bracing for a torrid confrontation with the bruising Irish, who gave the All Blacks a mighty scare before going down 21-11 in Wellington last Saturday.

Horwill, though, insists the Wallabies won't be taking any backward steps.

The 23-year-old firebrand said he was happy to take on the aggressor's role for Australia in the absence of veteran lock Dan Vickerman.

"That's the way I enjoy playing so that's the way I want to play," Horwill said.

"I don't want to change anything with how I play this year, so I'll be looking to get physical and mixing it with those guys.

"There's been a lot of training so it's now game time so time to get out there and show them what we've got.

"They're a physical side. They like to play it very hard in the forwards and we know that.

"We've watched them play so we've got to get out there and make sure we mix it with them and get on top and make sure we take it to them from the word go and not wait for them to come to us. We go to them."

Horwill's hot-headedness has brought him unstuck in the past.

But he said assuming the Queensland captaincy this Super 14 season had helped temper his aggression.

"I really enjoyed being the Reds captain," he said. "I think it helped my game.

"As a captain, you can't do stupid things and that was something that was in part of my game previously and I had to work that out and I think I've done that quite well this year.

"You want to be aggressive but you don't want to be angry. Being aggressive and angry are two completely different things.

"So that's something I've worked on. I don't want to do stupid things and have brain snaps."

Horwill confessed to being prone to baiting from opposition players earlier in his career, but said there was no room for such ill-discipline at Test level.

"I sort of had a quick rise. I came out and played Super 14 quite early. I got baited and wasn't sort of settled enough," he said.

"I mean, that's the best way to learn. You learn from your mistakes. You watch your footage from previous years and think 'that was pretty stupid. I won't do that again.'"

With lineout king Vickerman sidelined following ankle surgery, it will be Horwill's role also to secure the Wallabies sufficient ball from the set-piece.

"Ireland have got a good lineout and that's something we've worked on quite strongly this week," he said.

"They like to maul their lineout a lot, so that's something we've got to work on too and make sure we don't let their maul get on top of us."

Coach Deans was anticipating "a game full of passion".

"Both sides are coming off a bit of frustration - exiting the World Cup prior to when they would like to have and they're keen to push on," he said.

"They're keen to put that behind them and keen to get started. So that's exciting.

"It's going to be a great occasion, on the weekend. There's no doubt about that."

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