The Irish camp was privately filthy on Friday after being forced to hold their pre-game captain's run on a near-grassless council ground in Melbourne ahead of Saturday night's Lansdowne Cup rugby Test against Australia.

While the Wallabies completed their preparations under the closed roof comforts of the Telstra Dome, the visiting Irish were shuffled off to the barely adequate Harlequins club ground.

Publicly, Ireland coach Michael Bradley was reluctant to make a major fuss.

Privately, though, it is known the Irish - universally famous for their warmth and goodwill - were seething about the shabby treatment, which Bradley understood was caused by Friday night's AFL fixture at Telstra Dome between Essendon and West Coast.

"They're lining the pitch and preparing the ground, so the slot available to us was too early in terms of having a team run," Bradley said.

"The kickers used it okay in terms of getting used to the turf (for) kicking and the features of the ground, but we didn't go down there as a team."

A diplomatic Bradley described the alternative training ground as satisfactory.

"It was adequate. Yeah, it was adequate," he said.

"In fairness, there's been a drought ongoing for about four years here, so it was a council ground and Harlequins use it and obviously the rationing of the water and all that ... basically the grass hasn't been fed too much water in the last couple of years."

Compounding Irish woes was the loss of classy flanker David Wallace, who was ruled out on Friday with a calf injury.

"So Shane Jennings is coming in at seven and Stephen Ferris is coming onto the bench," Bradley said.

"David has had a very good season with Munster and Ireland. He played very well last week against the All Blacks, so he will be missed, I suspect, tomorrow."

The Test is Ireland's 13th and last of disappointing 2008 campaign and skipper Brian O'Driscoll said he would be urging his troops to lift for one final effort in the hope of claiming their biggest scalp of the year.

"Internationally, we have struggled a bit. We haven't really put together a big 80-minute performance in the 07-08 season, so it would be nice to finish on a high like that," O'Driscoll said.

"And maybe we need to put a little pressure on ourselves to do that, and not play for 60, 65 minutes and accept a 10-point defeat like Irish sides of old maybe.

"(We need to) play for the full 80 and expect to win it. I think that's something I'll be saying to the boys. If we play well, we're a bloody hard side to beat.

"Even two years ago, we scored some fantastic tries but only 60, 65 minutes worth. You can't get away with that against teams like Australia."

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