Wales have defied a horrendous run of injuries to win their three World Cup pool games so far and shore up a quarter-final berth with their last pool game to go against Australia on Sunday AEDT.
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But former Wallabies flanker Phil Waugh suspects the Red Dragons still lack the inner belief they will need to beat the Wallabies and "win big games back-to-back" in the knockout rounds to come.
Waugh credits Wales, who have claimed wins over Uruguay, England and Fiji, as a team that has been well led by Sam Warburton and coached by Warren Gatland.
He also expects Wales to put up a mighty fight against Australia at Twickenham, as they always do even though they have lost to the Wallabies in their past 10 meetings.
However, and notwithstanding their courage and ability to play and score points when on song, Waugh still senses a lack of assuredness among the Welsh compared to the Wallabies.
That is despite the boost they will have got from beating England, as Australia did last Sunday AEDT.
"They have a strong culture and are led well by Warburton. Gatland is obviously a strong coach," Waugh said of Wales from London where he is attending the World Cup.
"But I question whether they can genuinely believe they can win back-to-back. I don't necessarily think underneath it all that they believe they can win big games back-to-back. I also saw that with England."
On the other hand, Waugh, who played 79 Tests from 2000 to 2009 and in the 2003 and 2007 World Cups, believes the Wallabies genuinely believe they can win.
He says that was not just shown by how they beat England 33-13 but how they responded to the win afterwards.
"I reckon they are in a good mental state. You can see them after the game," Waugh said.
"They weren't surprised by the result, whilst the English would have been surprised.
"They will park that [win] and move on to Saturday. They are in a good spot.
"They will freshen up, get ready to go and understand it's important to finish on top of the pool. To do that they have to beat Wales and to beat Wales they'll have to play well."
Throughout his career in Test and Super Rugby, Waugh, now 36, played in sides that won back-to-back games repeatedly, and also on teams that did not.
So the former Waratahs captain knows the difference of feel within those teams and what determines it and ultimately the level of confidence.
"It's a real mentality that you are 'winners' and that is one of the great strengths of [Wallabies coach Michael] Cheika and what he brings," Waugh said.
"If you look at the way the guys are going about their business you can see that.
"At the other end there are a few teams like England and like Wales who want to be there … but I'm just not sure whether they genuinely believe they should be."
Asked where that "winners' belief comes from, Waugh said: "It's from leadership and hard work.
"If the leaders genuinely believe in the team and themselves, and you have the hard work done you know you are ready to go … then you are going to get good results."
