Australia are next up in the Autumn Nations Series and they will arrive in Cardiff on a high after their last-gasp, 42-37 win over England at Twickenham in the first leg of their potential Grand Slam tour.
But Anscombe is certain Wales can improve enough this week to be in a position to dent the Wallabies march as they attempt to match the exploits of the 1984 tourists led by Andrew Slack. Using the pain of the defeat to the Fijians could be the key to ending Wales’ losing streak this weekend.
“This has got to hurt, and it should hurt. We were playing at home, and we should back ourselves to win,” said Anscombe.
“It’s going to sting for a couple of days but you can’t dwell on it for too long at this level. We’ve got to find a way to pick ourselves back up.
“I truly believe we’ll be a lot better for playing this week. A few of us have been away for a while and things were a little bit clunky at times but I think the longer this group spends together we will always get better.
“Over the last couple of days, the Northern Hemisphere sides have just been a little bit clunkier than the Southern Hemisphere teams who have played a fair bit. I’m not taking anything away from them, but I do think we’ll be better off for the hit out against Fiji.
“I think there are elements we can improve on but there are also some positives for us to build on. We just need to tidy up a few areas and not make stuff hard for ourselves.
“We’ve got to be more accurate than what we were against Fiji. There were some positives but ultimately the loss is bitterly disappointing, and we’ll have to improve next week.”
Anscombe scored 23 points in the record 40-6 win over Australia the last time he faced them. That was at the World Cup in France and now he can’t wait to have another crack at them in Cardiff.
“Only a win was going to be good enough against Fiji and we didn’t get it. We’ll be hard on ourselves, but I do think we’ll be better for the run out and know that we’ve got to improve pretty quickly because we’ve got two sides on the up coming to play us in the next two weeks,” he added.
“We do believe we can turn things around and we’ve had a really good couple of weeks. I know we’ve now had 10 losses in a row, but it wasn’t talked about in camp.
“We have to find a way to get over the line and it’s got to come. I thought we were pretty positive in camp over the last couple of weeks.
“I thought we trained really well. I still think our best performance is good enough to beat Australia next week.
“We fully believe that. I think if we can grow another 10-20% in some little areas then we’ve got a real chance.
“I thought Australia were brilliant in their win over England and without doubt they are growing in confidence. It’s going to be a great challenge, but we’ve had success against them in the past here in Cardiff.
“So, if we get the little things right then there’s no reason why we don’t give ourselves a chance this weekend.”
