Australia refuse to get carried away

Wallabies skipper Stirling Mortlock is determined to raise the bar for his side despite their battling 32-20 victory over Wales at the Millennium Stadium.

Centre Mortlock, who notched one of his side's tries, commented, ""I don't think we're that satisfied with the effort. We were a bit loose in attack and the kicking game. So we've a lot to improve on."

Man of the match, Australia Chris Latham, said, "It was a great spirited win. I think we were down to 13 men at one stage, to give us credit. But we stuck with it and all credit, a win here (Millennium Stadium) is a good win."

The full-back added, "Credit Wales they kept throwing everything at us and we were a bit loose at times but to win here at Cardiff is a great win. A win's a win here.''

But he refused to get carried away adding, "We're still warming up in the tournament and we certainly wouldn't want anything perfect at the moment, there's a lot more to come."

Coach John Connolly echoed the thooughts of his players, rating the performance as only, "satisfactory".

"It's only our second game in three months and the game against Japan, was not as good as we liked. We've got a lot of work to do."

Wales fly-half Stephen Jones blamed a poor first half for his side's defeat.

The Welsh trailed 25-3 at the break in a match which was expected to decide who will top the group and earn an easier path through the last eight.

Australia were outscored in the second half but held on to take the win.

Jones told ITV1: "We were particularly frustrated with ourselves in the first half - we didn't play well and we allowed Australia to play.

"In the second half we were more efficient, we were more intense.''

He added: "Their defence was very good but we weren't very clever in attack. It's frustrating to have lost today and we have got to learn to play over 80 minutes.''