It will be a nervous Tatafu Polota-Nau making his long-awaited Wallabies return at Aviva Stadium this weekend after a horror season riddled with injuries.
After a broken arm ruled him out the British and Irish Lions series, hamstring problems struck twice to deny the powerhouse hooker any starts as Australia floundered in The Rugby Championship.
After six months without a game, Polota-Nau says he feels like he's gone back to square one as a rugby player.
But he'll have no time to ease his way back off the bench against a confrontational Irish pack in front of a capacity 53,000-strong Dublin crowd.
"It's quite nerve-wracking actually; it's like learning how to walk again really," he said.
Polota-Nau started at No.2 when Australia last played Ireland in the 2011 World Cup, where the brash young Wallabies outfit was upset 15-6 in an Eden Park ambush.
The Irish pack dominated the scrum, won the collisions and beat them at the breakdown.
The 44-Test rake is on red alert for the same level of physicality when he replaces Stephen Moore in the second half on Sunday morning (AEDT).
"The only way to combat that is by being physical a lot more," the Waratahs cult hero told AAP. "It's like how do you beat a bully?
"You go face to face with it. You don't shy off or go around it.
"They will look to really dominate the breakdown and a massive focus for us will be the breakdown."
Former Wallabies captain Simon Poidevin once described Irish players as "skilled lunatics" at home at Lansdowne Road and that commitment is again expected.
To prepare for the threat, the Wallabies tore in at 100 per cent intensity in a "full noise" no-holds-barred contact session in training in Dublin this week.
While Moore has been an ironman for the Wallabies, Polota-Nau's inspirational power game was sorely missed in both the 2-1 Lions series loss and the five losses to the All Blacks and Springboks.
But the upbeat NSW hooker, who has had to work hard to get full strength and flexibility back to his right arm, didn't mope about.
"The frustration of missing out on the Lions was quite big but I'm not the sort of guy that dwells on what if ... it's more what I can do now," he said.
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