Wales head the pool with a perfect 10 points from two bonus point wins, with both Fiji and Australia behind them with six points each from their opening matches.
A win for Wales this weekend would put them in pole position to take a top two spot and move into the quarter finals. At the end of the pool matches, the teams with the most points will progress, but if there is a tie the ranking will be determined by the results of the matches between the teams level on points.
“There are a few permutations, aren’t there,” admitted Wales attack coach, Alex King.
“We’re just concentrating on ourselves, and we’ve got two wins out of two We’re looking forward to Sunday and repaying the fans’ faith in us over the last few weeks.
“They’ve been absolutely brilliant and I’m sure most neutrals will be supporting us. Australia are a good team, coached well and a proud team.
“Every game in the World Cup is tough, and there’s been a good edge in training.”
Flanker Tommy Reffell, who pulled out of the game against Portugal with a calf injury, is being continually assessed along with Leigh Halfpenny ahead of Sunday’s game.
King has been impressed by the spirit in the Welsh camp and says the players are working hard on improving ahead of the game in Lyon.
“They are a tough group, a band of brothers who have lived together for the last 16 weeks. You do rely on each other when you are away from family and friends,” sad King.
“It’s a tough tournament and we are two games down, two to go and hopefully something after that. They are a great bunch to work with and good for a joke and a story too, a pleasure to work with.”
“But we know we have to work on our accuracy. Against Fiji we were really accurate but there were a few changes against Portugal, and it was not quite at the same level.
“We have got to take our chances against Australia. We’ll look to play to our strengths and put them under as much pressure as we can – whether that’s with our running game, kicking, set-piece.
“We need to ask them some questions in attack. If we get our discipline, accuracy, set-piece – every part of our game – spot on, we will be very a hard team to beat.”
Australia will come into the game on the back of their 22-15 defeat to Fiji – the first time in 69 years they had lost to them. They will also be without two key forwards for Sunday.
Prop Taniela Tupou and second row and captain Will Skelton are both out of the game.
“They are great players for Australia, but World Cups are not about one or two players, they are about squad depth,” added King.
“The guys who come in are there for a reason, and you win and lose as a team. Of course, you want the best players playing, but the guys coming in will be proud players.”
“We might adapt our game a little bit, but we’ll stay true to ourselves – bringing the back three into the game as much as possible, trying to get control from our half-backs, the forwards providing good quality ball and making our defence hard to break down.
“Neil Jenkins is a world-class kicking coach and every team that goes far in this tournament will have a good kicking game. But you need balance in every part of your game.
“We’re trying to be better than the week before and we want to challenge Australia in all those areas.”
