Rugby Union: Confident Wales Build Towards a World Cup Challenge

Wales, like England, have not won any of their last five Tests, but unlike their rivals across the Severn Bridge they are not going into their autumn series desperately seeking salvation. Wales are regarded as favourites to defeat Australia, a position they have not been in for more than a generation, and they are looking for their first back-to-back victories over the Wallabies since 1975.

While they, like England, have shaken up their management team since the Six Nations, they have a settled air, both in terms of selection and playing style. As England grub around for players, Wales can afford to ignore the claims of Lions such as Michael Owen, Gareth Cooper, Colin Charvis and Dafydd James. Injury-ravaged a year ago, Wales are back to full strength, apart from the prop Chris Horsman who plays for Worcester today.

After decades of not just subservience to the major southern hemisphere nations but abject humiliation, they have the potential and the pedigree to prove this month that they will not be going into next year's World Cup with their usual aim of scraping into the quarter-finals.

Wales are now under an all-Welsh management after 11 years of a southern hemisphere influence which, although many in the country would prefer not to admit it, allowed a team weighed down by past glories to come to grips with the demands of the professional game.

While attention this week has been lavished on the Australia skills coach Scott Johnson who, during his time in Wales between the end of 2001 and last May, sculpted a bold and exciting back division, the part played in the revival by the Wallabies' set-piece specialist Alex Evans has been ignored. Evans joined Cardiff in 1992 and quickly changed the attitudes of his players by placing emphasis on conditioning. He took Wales to the 1995 World Cup finals, and while they failed to make the last eight, by addressing issues such as drinking and diet he paved the way for Graham Henry, Steve Hansen and Johnson.

Wales will be more pragmatic under the new head coach Gareth Jenkins than they were under Johnson. He intends to take the game to Australia up front and the inclusion of the big-kicking Gavin Henson at inside-centre is evidence that Wales will play more of a positional game than they did under Johnson, while the inclusion of Jonathan Thomas in the back row gives them a fourth line-out option.

Wales won the corresponding fixture last year through their tight five. They were outplayed behind, but while Australia's set-piece play has since improved, Wales have Henson and Tom Shanklin back in harness in midfield and their back division is as it was in 2005, when they won the grand slam.

Australia's strength remains behind the scrum. They have moved Stephen Larkham from outside-half to inside-centre and are trying Matt Giteau at scrum-half as Johnson makes his mark. Lote Tuqiri exploited Wales's lack of balance in midfield a year ago, but he should enjoy less space today. "Welsh people seem to be writing us off and that's pretty stupid," said Tuqiri. It is not so much a dismissal of Australia's threat as recognition that, for the first time since the heady days of the 1970s, Wales might be expected to cope with it.