Dan Biggar opened the scoring and kicked two goals for Wales, which trailed 9-6 at halftime.
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Coach Michael Cheika was a little more effusive in his appreciation.
“We had no option there but to dig really deep at that stage where we had two guys off and only had 13 players”.
Wales will have to be more clinical than they were against Australia, who played 10 minutes in the second half with 13 men but dug deep to emerge unscathed.
“The game before that out there, we performed extremely well and could easily come away with the win then if it wasn’t for one incident”.
“We had to show a different skin”, added the coach, who has been in charge for less than a year following the resignation of Ewen McKenzie.
Australia survived seven minutes with 13 players without conceding a point and Campese said failing to put George North into space underlined Wales’ failings.
Biggar said: “We’re disappointed to lose but let’s keep things in perspective”.
Asked if he preferred Saturday’s success to the Wallabies’ win over England, Cheika replied: “I liked tonight?s win because as a forward, and not a very talented one, it was just about getting stuck in”.
Wales’ World Cup have been blighted by injuries with and Gatland said centre Jamie Roberts (head) and wing Liam Williams (foot) were concerns. ahead of their return to Twickenham next on Saturday. “It is not complicated”.
Scotland have beaten Australia in two of their last three meetings and Wales overcame South Africa the last time the teams met – albeit after a 16-game losing streak – but the southern hemisphere teams are on a roll.
With both teams already knowing they had qualified for the quarter finals, the focus was on winning the game to swerve round the tricky side of the draw and avoid a quarter final against South Africa followed by a potential semi final against the All Blacks. The back row is one of the Wallabies’ strengths but Hooper’s absence, Pocock’s injury and a substituted Sean McMahon forced Scott Fardy to play openside flanker for 20 minutes.
As he trudged off Twickenham, the home of English rugby, it occurred to Wales captain Sam Warburton that something good could come out of yet another loss to Australia.
“We didn’t capitalise, probably through a fault of ours, and that we didn’t finish it is credit to them (Australia) and their resolute defence as well”. “We were hungry for that try”.
Samoa produced their best performance of the tournament and outscored Scotland by four tries to three and were 26-23 up at halftime, but they are likely to rue giving away a string of penalties in the second half. England may be out but their World Cup is still very much alive.
“It was courageous defence by Australia”. Wales’s lack of composure when they should have scored has raised questions about their temperament. “We got over the line three times but were held up”.
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As for Wales, they will likely have to face reigning champions New Zealand en route to the final should they topple the Springboks next week.
