More pain looms for Wallabies as strong Irish and England packs await More pain looms for Wallabies after the defeat to France. WHAT began as an encouraging tenure under new coach Michael Cheika now has the potential to descend into one of the worst spring tours in Wallabies history. After losing to France, and again conceding crucial late scrum penalties after being shoved backwards, the Wallabies face the real prospect of returning home with three successive Test ­defeats. Next they play Ireland, who in the past year have transformed themselves into Europe's top side. Australia then finish the tour against England at Twickenham, where the locals have lost close tussles to the All Blacks and South Africa in successive weeks. After losing to France, the Wallabies face tough Tests against Ireland and England. The last time England lost to all three southern hemisphere giants in one year at Twickenham was 2008. More helpful to them than that record is the state of Australia's scrum, particularly at the back end of games. The Wallabies began well in the set piece against France, even winning a scrum penalty of their own in the first half. But as feared, when the forwards tired in the second half, and replacements were made in the tight five, they crumbled as they did in Cardiff the previous weekend. England's frustrated pack will be relishing their chance for atonement in front of home fans in a fortnight. Stuart Lancaster's side have shown a lack of backline thrust without injured midfielder Manu Tuilagi. But England's scrum is the best in the world, and their driving maul is nearing "unstoppable" territory. Those two facets will feature heavily in England's plans and practice because for Lancaster, a win over Australia will be more ­important than trying to inject spark into his backline by ­experimentation and ­adventure. They will meet in the pool stages at next year's World Cup in what looks like ­deciding the winner of their group; the runner-up of their pool will likely have to get through South Africa and New Zealand just to make the final. Psychologically there is a lot at stake - and particularly in the scrums. The Wallabies" scrum remains a work in progress. Australia's sole focus this week will be the looming game in Dublin. And while Ireland's pack has gone from Mr Bean to Green Machine, their scrum is nowhere near as strong as England's. Ireland's scrum was crushed by the Springboks, yet they dominated all other areas of play to win two weeks ago. England dominated South Africa's scrum, but lost the game last weekend. Those results prove that scrums alone won't win or lose games, but the problem for Australia is that their scrum is one of a number of areas that are either deficient or show little sign of ­improvement. Handling has been a source of great frustration for the Wallabies this year. At times they look like the Harlem Globetrotters, but they can just as soon turn into the Washington Wizards. The 18 turnovers in the game against France left Cheika bewildered. Australia's new defensive structure under Nathan Grey is leaking tries, but that's to be expected in the early stages. Under coach Joe Schmidt's regime, Ireland have adopted a no-offload game plan, where ball-runners refuse to even contemplate throwing a pass in contact. Ireland's error rate has been slashed and, in turn, they apply constant pressure through predictable but ­effective one-out raids. Australia's hopes of winning in Dublin rest on the unpredictable; their scrum, defence, and control of ­possession. Since losing 24-22 to the All Blacks last year courtesy of Aaron Cruden's second conversion attempt, Ireland have suffered just one defeat while claiming victories over the Springboks and Arg­entina, and winning the Six Nations tournament.