Wales 40-6 Australia: Warren Gatland's side hammer Wallabies to seal World Cup quarter-final spot

Gareth Anscombe kicked 23 points and tries from Gareth Davies, Nick Tompkins and Jac Morgan sealed a last-eight place with a game remaining in Pool C.The woeful Wallabies were humbled by Wales, who are celebrating a fourth consecutive World Cup quarter-final qualification under Warren Gatland as head coach.Eddie Jones' side are on the brink of becoming the first Australia team to suffer pool stage elimination.Australia managed just two penalties from Ben Donaldson.Morgan sealed the win with a try from a driving maul to take Wales to 40 points.

This display must rank as one of Wales' finest performances under the New Zealander and the result beats their previous record win against Australia, a 28-3 triumph in 1975.Captain Morgan was again outstanding, while number eight Taulupe Faletau and scrum-half Gareth Davies showed their class.The only negative for Wales was a worrying injury that forced talismanic fly-half Dan Biggar off in the first half, but his withdrawal allowed Anscombe to excel with six penalties, a conversion and a drop-goal.Welsh rugby was in disarray when Gatland returned for a second stint at the helm after replacing Wayne Pivac in December 2022.

The only negative for Wales was a worrying injury that forced talismanic fly-half Dan Biggar off in the first half, but his withdrawal allowed Anscombe to excel with six penalties, a conversion and a drop-goal.A victory over Georgia on 7 October in Nantes will officially ensure Wales finish as group winners but only two match points will be required.A few months ago, very few people would have backed Wales to achieve quarter-final qualification so easily and so quickly.Yet the army of Welsh fans that dominated the Lyon streets and OL Stadium this weekend are starting to believe again.

Brutal training camps in Switzerland and Turkey in the summer helped the players form a formidable bond and Gatland predicted his side would shock people by doing something special in France.They started with maximum bonus-point wins against Fiji and Portugal and completed the job of getting out of the pool with this devastating display against an average Australia side.The Wallabies have not officially been eliminated from the tournament but now need a series of results, including potentially Wales defeating Georgia and Georgia beating Fiji, to have a chance of progressing.

Wales confirmed their place in the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals with a game in hand as they put a 40-6 score line past Australia in Lyon. Gareth Davies scored the first try, and second-half scores from Nick Tompkins and Jac Morgan were complemented by 23 points from the boot of Gareth AnscombeWales got off to the perfect start and won a penalty 16 seconds after kick-off. Within the first three minutes, Davies scored their first try after captain Morgan made a break to release the scrum-half to score under the posts.