Wales played the Wallabies four times in 2012, Australia triumphant in all three matches in a series Down Under before leaving the Millennium Stadium last autumn with a narrow 14-12 victory. Kurtley Beale’s last minute score did the damage that day and on Saturday evening, Wales will be targeting a first victory over the Wallabies since 2008.
Under the guidance of new head coach Ewen McKenzie, who took over from Robbie Deans after the Test series defeat to the British & Irish Lions, Australia have impressed in a comfortable victory over Ireland and a 21-15 defeat of Scotland.
This will be the first time Wales have faced Australia under McKenzie, with Gatland mindful of the changes the former Queensland Reds boss has implemented.
“We haven’t spoken about Australia because there is a lot of confidence in this side in terms of our own ability,” said Gatland, who took charge of the successful Lions tour.
“With Australia, there are a lot of key players who have been regulars who are not playing on Saturday, the likes of (Berrick) Barnes, (James) O’Connor, (Digby) Ioane and one or two others as well.
“They’re quite different to when we’ve faced them in the past. They’ve got a different coach and Ewen is really trying to put his mark on the team – I respect him for that. Discipline is a massive part of what he’s trying to do and I think that’s important for him at this stage going forward.
“They made a number of changes against Scotland and were good enough to win, they played exceptionally well against Argentina and were excellent against Ireland.
“We know it’s going to be tough and hopefully both sides will go out with the attitude to play some positive rugby.”
For Saturday’s Dove Men Series finale, Gatland has made a number of changes to his side from the 17-7 victory over Tonga. Sam Warburton returns as skipper in a back row alongside Dan Lydiate and Toby Faletau.
Dan Biggar has won selection at fly half and partners Mike Phillips at half back with Scott Williams returning from a toe ligament problem to partner his namesake Owen in the centre. Alex Cuthbert completes a remarkable turnaround to start on the right wing after being ruled out of the entire autumn series at the start of this month.
“The medical team have done a good job getting Alex back, we had him training last week and we were confident he was going to be fit,” said Gatland.
“For Scott, it was just precautionary in terms of resting him for the Tonga match and making sure his toe was right. It’s good to have him back as well.
“We’ve got a nice mixture of some experience and some youth in the side.”
“It’s a Test match, it’s important to us and it would be nice to get a win on Saturday moving forward.”
