Prop Sekope Kepu revealed intimate team bonding sessions and Michael Cheika's surprise scrum training tactics have helped bolster self-belief as the Wallabies set themselves for a charge to the title.

Cheika has asked every player in the group to prepare a family tree to show their history and who they are representing when they run out in the gold jersey. And Wallabies forwards almost "blew a gasket" when they lifted their heads out of scrum sessions to find that Cheika had stacked the other side with extra players.

It's all part of Cheika's masterplan to develop new pride in the Wallabies jersey, create a new identity and break down any previous barriers within the squad.

So far it's working and the courageous defensive effort in a 15-6 win against Wales last weekend proved the Wallabies would not wilt under pressure.

"It's about doing it for the people who mean the most to you and more than anything to do it for the whole of Australia, to restore that pride in the jersey," Kepu said.

"For me, I've got children and to put a smile on their faces and kids their age … we speak about it …That all comes as a consequence and obviously the hard work is the groundwork for it."

Cheika is becoming the master of getting the best out of his players. He gave golf clubs to all of his NSW Waratah players and told them to "tee off" in their 2013 Super Rugby title win.

The Wallabies delivered a monumental defensive effort against Wales to repel seven minutes of brutal attack while Will Genia and Dean Mumm sat in the sin bin.

Despite having a two-man advantage, Wales couldn't break the Wallabies brick wall and Australia survived to secure a spot on the favourable side of the World Cup play-off draw.

They will play against Scotland at Twickenham on Sunday (Monday morning AEDT) and will avoid clashes against South Africa and New Zealand until a potential meeting in the final.

The battered and bruised squad will be given time to recuperate this week before focusing on the challenge against Scotland and moving their base from central London closer to Twickenham.

One of the most impressive aspects of their performances so far has been a remarkable scrum transformation. Twelve months ago the Wallabies' forward pack was pushed backwards at the set piece by England and Wales. But they managed parity on most occasions and muscled up to win penalties of their own.

The change in scrum fortunes has led many experts to describe the Wallabies as the World Cup real deal.

But Kepu said the work was done when Cheika had an eight-man forward pack pushing against 10 other players at intense training sessions.

The Wallabies scrum was down to seven men against Wales and the Red Dragons could see blood as they packed down and tried to push Australia backwards. Instead, the lighter pack held strong and proved to be an immovable object.

"Sometimes you're in a scrum [at training] and you think, 'I can't move this thing'," Kepu sad. "You're giving it everything and then they call 'break' and the scrum goes for almost a minute. Then you find that they had extra guys. That's a 'Cheik' tactic. He gets extra flankers on the opposition scrum.

"You're almost blowing a gasket just trying to move 10 guys. Cheik started it last year, getting all the backs to come in for scrummaging sessions and clap us … To get that recognition from our backs means more to us than anything.

"To have the ability to hold [Wales] out with seven guys [in the scrum] and a man short in the backs, that just shows the belief and trust we have in the team."

Kepu says the challenge for the Wallabies is to back up their scrum performance again to show that it is no longer the weak part of their game.

"We can be our own worst enemy and we can't let that happen," Kepu said.

WORLD CUP QUARTER FINALS

Quarter-final one: South Africa v Wales at Twickenham, 2am Sunday AEDT.

Quarter-final two: New Zealand v France at Cardiff, 6am Sunday AEDT.

Quarter-final three: Ireland v Argentina at Cardiff, 11pm Sunday AEDT.

Quarter-final four: Australia v Scotland at Twickenham, 2am Monday AEDT.