After Australia’s stunning win against New Zealand in Hong Kong on Saturday, how worried should Wales be about facing the Wallabies this Saturday? Wales Rugby Hospitality tickets have sold out in anticipation of a great game.

LEAF through some sections of the self-congratulatory Australian press yesterday and you’d be forgiven for concluding Wales may as well not bother turning up at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday.

If you did happen to go online and read any of it, the easiest assumption to make was that, as the Wallabies were always going to pose an almighty threat anyway, now, after their 26-24 defeat of New Zealand in Hong Kong at the weekend, surely it’s a mere damage limitation exercise for Warren Gatland’s troops in five days time.

Though Wales will go into their autumn series opener as clear underdogs, I would warn against writing them off on the strength of what we saw out in the far east.

To begin with, victory for Australia over the All Blacks carries two immediate benefits for Wales.

Firstly, it takes the heat off Gatland at the start of this week’s build-up because the notion that the green and gold represents Wales’ best chance of a southern hemisphere scalp this November has now been completely dispelled.

Because of wins against the Aussies in 2005 and 2008, they have come to be seen by many in these parts as there for the taking whenever they come here.