The Wallabies greenhorn front-row survived deliberate knees, punches, baby taunts and a scrum demolition against England but don't expect much respite against Ireland at Suncorp Stadium.

While the Irish scrum lacks the force and reputation of England's intimidating pack, novice hooker Saia Faingaa said the Irish would certainly target Australia up front on Saturday night.

Faingaa, Queensland team-mates Ben Daley and James Slipper, and tighthead prop Salesi Ma'afu endured one of the toughest of Test baptisms in the drawn two-Test battle for the Cook Cup.

And according to Faingaa, it wasn't just in the scrum contest where the wily, grizzled English front-row went about teaching the young Wallabies a lesson.

After English rake Steve Thompson claimed the Australian rookies had improved in the second Test through cheating at scrum time, a bewildered Faingaa accused his opposite number of his own illegal acts in general play.

"Thompson definitely gave me a couple of knees in the head and a couple of punches that weren't quite nice," said the dreadlocked 23-year-old who also felt his hair pulled in the rucks.

Faingaa denied he responded in kind but wasn't about to hold a grudge, particularly after the 2003 World Cup winner delivered some proper compliments after England's 21-20 win in Sydney.

"He came up and said 'you're a credit to yourself and you're doing well and I'll see you at the World Cup'," he said.

"That's a good thing coming from one of the best.

"They were there to intimidate us and we did all right but we still have a lot to improve on.

"To have them first up is a good learning curve. You aren't going to come up against any tougher."

Slipper, who has gained his surprise international chance with Benn Robinson and Ben Alexander injured, said the English front-row also relished the chance to increase their sledging when he came on in the second half for Ma'afu.

But they weren't so happy when he held his tongue and his ground.

"They were sending a bit of talk our way and we got under their skin by not responding and they did not like that," said Slipper, 21.

"When I got on it was all the baby stuff and `now the baby's on'. It's all fun and games but when you get down into the crouch position all that goes out the window."

Slipper felt the Australian scrum, smashed in the 27-17 win in Perth, took a "couple of large steps forward" at ANZ Stadium.

"We didn't take any backward steps and I think they were a bit surprised," he said.

"I thought we got under their skin a little bit.

So will the heat come off against Ireland whose tighthead prop Tom Court struggled to get a game for Queensland five years ago?

"Definitely not, we've still got a lot to learn and I'm pretty sure they will target us there as well," Faingaa said.

"We lost two on our own ball there as well so we're not on the top of our (scrummaging) game."

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