They conceded five penalties, two of which led to six points for Ronan O’Gara at a critical phase of the game.

Man-of-the-match Healy, ably assisted by destructive tighthead Mike Ross, led the rout and was pleased his homework had paid off.

“It felt good to dominate the Australia scrum,” said the Leinster front row.

“It’s always nice to get on the front foot and load the pressure on. I’m pretty happy about that. I’m really chuffed to have been named man of the match. I didn’t expect that.

“We’d been working hard at scrummaging and we knew it was coming. I wanted us to be dominant there because I know how hard it is for backs to play if they don’t have that platform to work off.

“We’d done a fair bit of research into their scrum and everything had gone according to plan. It was enjoyable. It was a good pack performance. We clicked well.”

Ireland now have one foot in the quarter-finals where they are likely to meet Wales or Samoa.

In a quirk of the draw, the Six and Tri Nations sides are set to be kept apart until the final.

“This is a great boost for us going forward. There are a few things we’ll have to work on but for now we’ll enjoy this,” he said.

“I’m not looking at the other side of the draw yet, we still have two more games before the quarter-finals.

“We’re going to need more big performances if we’re to get further in the competition.”