San Francisco Frontiers - Jones backs young Australia to keep World Cup dream alive

A second successive Pool C defeat following last week's 22-15 reverse against the Pacific Islanders would almost certainly end Australia's participation at this World Cup, even before they play minnows Portugal.

In nine previous editions of the global showpiece, the Wallabies have never before failed to get out of their group.

But despite being dominated by Fiji a week ago -- a team beaten by Wales the week before that -- Jones is confident his team will put it behind them and perform to their potential in Lyon.

"Last week was a difficult game for us and we've bounced back well and prepared really well for this game, so we'll go out there and give it a red hot go," said Jones.

"If we beat Wales on Sunday, we're alive, and that's all we've got to be."

Four years ago, South Africa won the World Cup despite losing a pool match to New Zealand.

"We've got an opportunity to show on Sunday whether we can fight and really grind out and get the result we need to get, and I'm confident we can," said the 63-year-old former England coach.

Jones rung the changes from the Fiji defeat, moving Ben Donaldson from full-back to fly-half and dropping Carter Gordon, who was poor against the Pacific Islanders, to the bench.

Andrew Kellaway comes in at full-back while Rob Leota got the nod in the back row over Fraser McReight.

Wales are themselves in a transitional period, with the likes of Alun Wyn Jones, Justin Tipuric and Rhys Webb retiring from international duty in the months before the World Cup.

Despite that, Gatland is still fielding a team with 400 more Test caps between them than Australia.

"I think experience is going to play a big part. We are clear about what we want to achieve. We go with a lot of confidence on Sunday," said Gatland, who reverted to the same team that beat Fiji 32-26 in their Pool C opener, before ringing the changes in a 28-8 win over Portugal.

"We've got 10 points and we know that a win on Sunday puts us into the quarter-finals," added the New Zealander.

- 'Gatland style of rugby' -

Wales finished fifth in three of the last four Six Nations tournaments, lost at home to Italy for the first time ever in 2022 and lost for the first time ever to Georgia last November.

Poor results led the Welsh federation to sack Wayne Pivac and bring back Gatland in December.

And Jones says the team has reverted to familiar tactics.

"It's gone back to a more Gatland style of rugby," said Jones.

"Pivac wanted to play that more really traditional New Zealand side-to-side (game), whereas Gatland plays a more pragmatic style, high kicking, high contest."

Gatland also expects Sunday's match to feature a lot of kicking, but pointed the finger at Australia's "direct" style.

"I was surprised at their tactics against Fiji. They had 11 minutes less ball-in-play time than we had against Fiji," he said

"So, I'm not 100 percent sure tactically the way they're going to come at us. We've practised for a couple of scenarios."

One key area will be the breakdown, where Fiji dominated Australia, forcing 18 turnovers to seven.

The week before that, Wales had got the upper hand over Fiji in that area.

But Australia have been focusing on it this week.

"We've got to win that physicality, if we don't then we're on the back foot and we invite those opportunities to build that scoreboard pressure," scrum-half Tate McDermott said earlier this week.

He returns to the starting XV after sitting out the Fiji defeat due to a concussion.

Z.Sanchez--SFF