Rugby World Cup: Gatland hails ‘outstanding performance’ against Australia

Wales recorded a record winning margin against Australia in Lyon

Warren Gatland said he “expected Wales to win” against Australia on Friday.

It was a statement that suggested confidence, but even the most optimistic of fans could not have predicted the ease at which Wales dispatched of the Wallabies.

Gareth Anscombe starred as Wales celebrated a record win margin of 40-6.

The results sees them cruise their way into the quarter-finals, with a final pool game to come against Georgia on 7 October in Nantes.

“I thought today was an outstanding performance in terms of what we wanted to achieve with game management,” Gatland said after the game.

“We were blowing at half-time but we knew they were worse than us. We went out and controlled the second half. I thought we were fantastic.”

Asked which areas of the game pleased him, Gatland said he was “happy with a lot of stuff.”

“Defensively, our line speed wasn’t brilliant at the start but we improved on that. We were clinical, controlled the game, we didn’t really give them anything.

“This team gets better and better and, with some confidence and momentum, we’re in a pretty good place now.”

Wales will now return to their base in Versailles where they will have just under two weeks to prepare for their final pool game.

“You can always get better, but I think we’ll enjoy tonight,” added Gatland.

“We’ve got a break of about 13 days, so the boys have all got some time off to spend with their families, then we’ll regroup next week and start thinking about Georgia.”

Victory in Nantes will see Wales finish as group winners, but only two match points will be required.

That would set up a probable quarter-final against Argentina, Japan or Samoa in Marseille the following weekend, with England clear favourites to win Pool D.

But Gatland insists they are not looking that far ahead.

“We haven’t looked past anything yet, it has been one game at a time,” he said.

“I know a lot has been said about this side of the draw, it is what it is, we can’t do anything about it. It’s not our fault.

“Our focus will be on Georgia, a team we lost against in the autumn. We need to rectify that and we need to make sure we don’t drop our standards. I think these players are well aware of that, they have worked incredibly hard.”