Wales 6-15 Australia
by Michael McCann
at Twickenham

Dan Biggar said Welsh confidence was unaffected by the 15-6 loss to Australia in their final Pool A match on Saturday, ahead of facing South Africa this Saturday in the quarter-finals.

The Wallabies remain unbeaten and though no team has ever won the tournament after losing a pool game, the Wales fly-half says the squad remain confident.

“We are excited for next week. To nullify the Australian back line, with the players they have got, and not concede a try was great.

“Ultimately we are in a World Cup quarter-final and after a tough group and with the injuries we have had, it’s not going to be difficult to raise ourselves.”

Biggar added that there was no advantage to Australia’s Will Genia and Dean Mumm being handed yellow cards in three second-half minutes as it cost Wales, who were held up on the try line three times.

“We could have potentially had a penalty try, it was a 50-50 call and the momentum swung then as they went up and got a penalty at the other end.

“Every penalty decision, despite being for us, built more pressure on us. Australia defended well but we definitely should have scored a try in that period — we score there and we probably go on to win the game and give ourselves a huge lift.”

Wales turned down three kickable penalties in pursuit of a converted try to take the lead, though captain Sam Warburton does not regret this decision.

“We were six points behind. That’s still two penalties to get a draw. I don’t have any regrets, just credit to Australia’s defence.

“Any team would have backed themselves to go over, which is disappointing that we didn’t make more from the scrum and line-out.”

The resilient Wallabies conceded no second-half points, naturally delighting Australian coach Michael Cheika, who emphasised the importance of good defence.

“Just like behind every man is a good woman, behind every good attack is a good defence because you’re going to lose the ball sometimes if you want to play attacking rugby.

“You’ve got be able to react to that in defence, which is humbling because if you’re not concentrating you can get torn apart.”

Both teams will return to Twickenham for their quarter-finals this weekend.

Wales face South Africa on Saturday before Australia take on Scotland the following day.