Everyone in Wales will be cheering Australia - Lee Byrne

Former full-back Lee Byrne admits that all Wales’ supporters will be cherring on Australia when they play England later today (3rd October) and believes it will be another close contest.

A Wallabies win at Twickenham will knock England out of the World Cup and send Wales through to the quarter-finals.

Byrne said: "We are hoping Australia can do us a favour! Everyone in Wales will be cheering them on and hopefully a win for them will send Wales through to the quarter-finals.

"It’s going to be close match again. They [England] have probably been pumped for this game, in training, all week as will have Stuart Lancaster and they know they will be on home soil again.

“But they are potentially facing an exit from a home World Cup at the group stages and they will know that so they will come out with fighting spirit. I do think the Aussies will take it by six points, but it will come down to the final minutes like it always does in these huge test matches.”

Wales’ 23-13 win on Thursday against Fiji saw them go top of Pool A on 13 points which is four ahead of Australia and seven in front of England.

Warren Gatland’s side did miss out on a bonus point, but Byrne feels that the most important thing was just to get the win.

Tries from Gareth Davies and Scott Baldwin gave Wales the lead, but Fiji fought back in the second half.

“I thought it was a great performance,” said Byrne, who retired from rugby earlier this due to a shoulder injury.  

“Everyone is going on about the bonus point and maybe it will play a part, but you come up against a Fiji team that have really improved over the last couple of years and we got the job done.

“We have always had a hard game against the Fijians and Thursday was no expectation. We dug deep after the short turnaround from the England game and got the result. The important thing is the three wins so far considering the injuries which they have had.”

Wales will now sit and wait for the drama to unfold at Twickenham on Saturday before facing Australia at England HQ next weekend.

The Welsh have lost their last 10 meetings with the Wallabies, but Byrne – who played twice against Australia for his country - thinks that there is now little between the two sides.

“We’ve always been close but I think it comes down the mental strength for Wales. The side will go into the game with bags of confidence especially after going to Twickenham and turning over England.

“Australia’s backs are very dangerous with Israel Folau in particular, but Wales have got plenty of options to trouble Australia.”