Ioan Cunningham has described Saturday’s final Group A World Cup clash with Australia as “a winner takes all” game as the battle for a place in the quarter-final is set to go down to the wire.

To reach the last eight Wales need to either be in the top two places in their group or be ranked as one of the best third-placed teams. They currently sit third, level on points with Australia in second, and ahead of Scotland, who have to face table-toppers New Zealand in their final game.

Having squeezed past the Scots with a penalty from the last kick of the match in the opening game, Cunningham’s side were beaten 56-12 by the Black Ferns last weekend. The Aussies went down 41-17 to the host nation in their opening game.

“It is a winner-takes-all sort of game against Australia. It is going to be built up and it’s going to be great for us,” said Cunningham.

“The biggest thing for us now is to make sure we recover well, recharge and get the energy back into the group. At the back end of the week, we need to sharpen our sword and get out there to get the job done.

“World Cups are tough tournaments played under great pressure in intense environments. That’s where we want to live.

“We have a short turn around this week before we face tough opposition who showed against the Black Ferns how physical they can be. We have got to muscle up.

“Australia are physical, they love to run direct and hard with their big ball carriers, but they also have good balance with their sevens players. They have speed out wide and use long passes.

“If you give them time and space, they are very dangerous. They’ve shown they can score tries and we have to tighten up our defence.”

Cunningham believes there are plenty of things to build on from the game against New Zealand and intends to look for further improvements from a Welsh pack that is building a big reputation for its power at the set-pieces.

They manufactured two tries against the Black Ferns at the Waitekere Stadium, In Auckland, with No 8 Sioned Harries powering over for her 11th try at her fourth World Cup tournament to move out on her own as Wales’ leading points and try scorer at the global event.

“Our forwards were great at the set-piece and we had dominance at the scrum and in our driving line out. This team has grown so much since January and there is massive potential,” said Cunningham.

“The challenge for us is to learn faster than the opposition. We must look at the small details and examine how teams’ set-up, attack and defend.

“The future is exciting and we showed that we can go toe to toe with the Black Ferns at times. Cara Hope was excellent in the scrum, as was Kelsey Jones, while Gwen Crabb went well at No 6 having brought the size and physicality that we needed.

“We are definitely moving in the direction but we need to be more clinical. We need to make the right decision at the rights time and be able to execute in those high-pressure moments.

“We are chipping away at those things and it will come. Suddenly your two tries move to five tries and you have a good day at the office.”

With a six day turn around to their final Gorup match, Cunningham will be hoping his squad recovers well and gets into the right frame of mind for a vital game against Australia. According to lock Natalia John, the mood in the camp is still very much upbeat.

“Watching the game between Australia and Scotland made us think it is a winnable game against on Saturday. Australia are a very physical side, so we are going to have to make some improvements from the New Zealand game and tweak a few things,” said John.