Australia in scrappy victory over Ireland

Australia have a lot of work to do before the Tri-Nations following Saturday's scrappy 22-15 victory over Ireland, captain Ricky Elsom said.

Scrumhalf Luke Burgess and flyhalf Quade Cooper scored first-half tries for the Wallabies, while Cooper also slotted two penalties.

Inside centre Matt Giteau scored the only points of the second half when he kicked two penalties for the hosts, who lost 21-20 to England last weekend.

"When we played Ireland last year we played a hell of a lot better than that and came away with a draw so you have to be thankful when you get up on the scoreboard," Elsom said in a televised interview.

"We just weren't sharp enough, or on the same page (in terms of attack) ... and we have a lot of work to do before the Tri-Nations."

Australia dominated territory and possession, but were penalised by referee Bryce Lawrence when Ireland got inside the Wallabies' territory, which allowed flyhalf Jonathan Sexton to kick five first-half penalties.

The Wallabies, however, established a 16-15 lead at the break after Burgess intercepted a pass from Ireland number eight Chris Henry and ran 40 metres to score.

Cooper then side-stepped his way past three defenders after the halftime hooter had sounded.

Australia continued to hammer away at the Irish defensive line in the second half, but made far too many mistakes to fully capitalise on their wealth of possession.

Their error rate was highlighted by Kurtley Beale's inexplicable decision to kick ahead in the 60th minute when he was confronted with just a prop between him and the tryline and a lurking Giteau outside with only one other man to beat.

Australia's first game in the Tri-Nations is against South Africa on July 24 in Brisbane.

Ireland also lost to the All Blacks and New Zealand Maori in their June internationals.