High praise.

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika reckons the current Ireland team is the greatest of all-time ahead of this weekend’s opening Test with his Australian side.

Ireland take on the Wallabies in a mouth-watering three-Test series down under this month, with the first of those games set to take place at Suncorp Stadium this weekend.

Joe Schmidt’s side are on a record 12-game unbeaten run, having destroyed everything in their path during the Autumn Internationals and at the Six Nations where they secured their third Grand Slam in history.

Cheika, who coached Leinster to Heineken Cup glory, says Ireland at coming to Australia thinking they can win 3-0 and they are very much favourites regardless of what they say.

They’re the best team Ireland has had since the start of their rugby history,” said Cheika today in Brisbane.

“They’re coming down here as number two in the world. They can claim that they’re underdogs as much as they like but they’re certainly going to be the favourites when you go off the back of the season they’ve had.

“They believe they’re coming here to win 3-0, no doubt about it from what I’ve read and seen.”

But in typical Joe Schmidt fashion, the Ireland head coach has played down the favourites tag.

“You can say what you like about opponents – it’s what you do on the pitch and I have no doubt that Cheik is very confident that they can deliver a performance that will give them the margin on the scoreboard they need,” said Schmidt.

“The last time they played at Suncorp they beat the All Blacks. It wasn’t some fortuitous victory.”