Rugby World Cup 2019: It is now or never for Wales – they won’t get a better chance to beat Australia

It feels like it’s now or never for Wales.

A settled team full of seasoned campaigners who know how to win against a much-changed Australia team coached by a man seemingly constantly under pressure.

If ever there was a chance for Wales to address their dismal World Cup record against the southern hemisphere giants, then surely Sunday is it.

Following his team’s steady if unspectacular opening win over Georgia – a cathartic game as much for the effect it had on moving the focus away from the Rob Howley betting scandal as it was for the pool points it provided – Wales coach Warren Gatland has named an unchanged team to face Michael Cheika’s Wallabies.

By contrast, Cheika has shredded the team-sheet he posted for his side’s unconvincing win over Fiji to make four changes to a starting line up which doesn’t exactly scream confidence or continuity.

Where Wales are settled, the Wallabies are anything but.

It would be folly to write Australia off before the whistle has blown. The Wallabies have a magnificent World Cup record and have shown time and again they are capable of living with the best teams in the world. Wales have beaten them only once in the tournament’s history and that was back in 1987 when hydration involved drinking eight pints the night before a game and conditioning was something you turned on in your hotel room.

Outside World Cups their record is hardly any better. Wales’ victory in Cardiff last November – a drab, try-less 9-6 affair – ended a 13-match losing run against the Wallabies. But, crucially, it gave belief they could earn another win when it really mattered. On Sunday, in Tokyo, it really matters.

Win and Wales can look ahead to a probable quarter-final showdown with France or Argentina, lose and it will more likely be Eddie Jones’s England in the last eight before a possible semi-final against the holders and favourites, New Zealand. Suddenly, the World Cup final would look a very long way off indeed.

In Alun Wyn Jones Wales have a man for all seasons who knows what it takes to beat Australia, be it with Wales or the British and Irish Lions. While last November’s win in Cardiff was a defence dominated affair, Jones will know his side must surely score tries on Sunday if they are to stand a chance of finishing the day on top of Pool D.

Jones, now arguably Wales greatest ever forward, makes his 139th international appearance on Sunday. He hasn’t played in many more important games.

In George North, Josh Adams and Liam Williams, Wales possess a back three as potent on paper as any but the team’s collective challenge is to find their wide men the time and space required to damage opponents.

Inside centre Hadleigh Parkes goes into the game under an injury cloud while Dan Biggar at fly half is not renowned for his willingness to put width on the ball but Wales’ two principle play-makers must find a way to unlock Australia’s defence if Gatland’s men are to deliver on their favourites tag.

Aerially they will fancy themselves.

Israel Folau’s enforced absence – just one of several controversies surrounding Australia in the lead up to and during this tournament – has robbed the Wallabies not only of their most attacking threat but also their best defender in the skies.

Only Liam Williams can match Folau’s brilliance under the high ball and Australia were badly left exposed against Fiji. Full back Kurtley Beale has paid the price, replaced by Dane Haylett-Petty in the No 15 shirt, while Bernard Foley and Will Genia start at half back and Adam Ashley-Cooper replaces Reece Hodge on the wing.

The circumstances surrounding Hodge’s three-match ban for the concussion-inducing high hit on Peceli Yato have been poured over in great detail after the event. Some uneducated commentators, including Cheika himself, have argued the ban was harsh and unfair.

If only the same level of interest had been paid to World Rugby’s widely-trumpeted new tackle directives before the tournament then Hodge would not have been forced to admit he had “no knowledge” of them when it came to explaining his actions at the hearing.

As admissions of erroneous and slapdash preparation go, that line took some beating. If it was true, Cheika and his coaching team badly let down their players in the build up to the competition.

But despite the relative chaos and confusion around them, Australia will still be a threat. They are too proud a sporting nation not to be when it comes to rugby’s biggest stage.

But Wales won’t get a better chance of beating them. If they are to have serious pretensions of winning the tournament they surely must.

It feels like it’s now or never for Wales.