Wallabies bank win to keep slim World Cup hopes alive but suffer more injuries

Eddie Jones isn’t going to spend the week sweating on the Wallabies’ World Cup fortunes, saying his side have done all they can to make the quarter-finals after their early tournament flops.

The Wallabies took maximum points from their last pool match against Portugal in Saint-Etienne with a 34-14 win to keep their campaign on life-support.

Flanker Fraser McReight scored Australia’s crucial fourth try in the 47th minute of their Sunday night (Monday AEDT) match to collect a vital bonus point en route to victory.

They were forced to play with 13 men for eight minutes in the second half after poor discipline again reared its head but at least showed plenty of grit in defence against a willing Portuguese outfit that scored two tries and had two others disallowed.

The Wallabies will stay in France for another seven days and await the result of the final pool game between Fiji and Portugal next Sunday night in Bordeaux (Monday AEDT).

If Fiji win, draw, or get a bonus point for a loss by seven or fewer or by scoring four tries, they will send Australia home before the quarter-finals for the first time in history.

Jones joked he might send Fiji-born Wallabies Marika Koroibete and Suliasi Vunivalu to sabotage the Pacific islanders’ preparations.

“Maybe take some kava to Fiji, I’ll give Marika and Suli my credit card and get them to go to the Fiji camp with some kava, maybe that might work,” he said.

Jones said his side’s biggest failing of the tournament was losing control of their own destiny due to record losses to Fiji and Wales, the latter their biggest defeat in tournament history.

“The disappointment is we haven’t controlled our own destiny,” Jones said.

“In a pool stage you want to control your own destiny and we haven’t done that. As I’ve said, I take full responsibility for that.

“We’ve done all we can and the (Fiji-Portugal) game will take its course - we don’t control the result so I’m not going to spend too much time worrying about it.

“We’ve had our go in the World Cup and we’re sitting where we are and we accept our position.

“If it happens that we get another chance so be it, and if it doesn’t we’ve only got to look at ourselves.”

The Wallabies have also been left with no specialist five-eighth to call on, with Carter Gordon expected to be ruled out of the World Cup with a knee injury and lock Nick Frost set to join him.

The players have been given the next three days off and are free to travel around France to freshen up before they resume training for a quarter-final clash in Marseille with Pool D winners England on October 16 (AEDT) that may never eventuate.

“I’ve never experienced this before. We’re anticipating we’ll be in the quarter-finals so we’ll see on Sunday night - Portugal played with plenty of spirit tonight so you never know.

“We’ve got a program in place; we’re going to have three days off and then we’ll have three days of good training and we’ll look to get better.

“We want to finish next week better than we are now. That’s the aim and if we get an opportunity to do that on the field, fantastic.”