But while Australian fans desperately crave attacking rugby, it was courage and guts that will win back supporters after the players muscled up and beat a Welsh storm on Saturday night (Sunday morning AEDT).

The Wallabies made almost twice as many tackles as Wales in a 15-6 triumph that will go down as the defining moment of Michael Cheika's reign as coach.

It was a win built on work ethic and mongrel rather than flashy tries. In fact, there were no tries at all but it was a performance that put pride in the gold jersey after years of being battered.

The Wallabies played with 13 men for almost 10 minutes after Will Genia and Dean Mumm were sent to the sin bin.

Wales looked destined to break the Wallabies line every time they touched the ball. But a gold jersey would turn up out of nowhere to protect the line. First it was Bernard Foley and Ben McCalman, then Israel Folau and finally Kane Douglas.

Down on troops and absolutely out on their feet, the Wallabies kept turning up for each other.

When asked if that type of performance showed people back home what the Wallabies were made of, Folau said: "I think so. It starts within our group, we want to make sure we play for each other.

"That will have a ripple effect to our families and to our fans back home and here in the UK.

"It is something we can be proud of, but we don't want to get too ahead of ourselves. We are building nicely within camp and staying humble."

The gritty and grinding win was the complete opposite of a Bernard Foley attacking masterclass against England the week before, where Australia ran in 33 points to knock the hosts out of the World Cup.

Foley was again the scoring star, booting all of Australia's 15 points from penalties.

Wales enjoyed 93 per cent of possession in a 10-minute period in the second half. But the brick wall of gold jerseys never crumbled.

"It was a big effort there in the second half, we knew there would be a moment where we'd have to defend like that," flanker Scott Fardy said.

"A World Cup isn't about tries. It's about winning. We didn't get a bonus point [for scoring four tries] against Fiji and everyone was carrying on a bit.

"But we always knew that this tournament was about winning games, that's what we're interested in.

"Whether it's tries or goals, I don't really care. I just want to win and that's the mentality of the team.

"Obviously we want to play our brand of rugby, but sometimes things happen and you can't do that. When that happens, we'll muscle one out and that's what we did [against Wales]."

The Wallabies have conceded just two tries in four games so far. Their biggest defensive test was against Wales and they passed with flying colours.

The next challenge is a quarter-final battle against Scotland at Twickenham on Sunday night (Monday morning AEDT).

The Wallabies will move away from their central London base on Sunday to relocate closer to Twickenham for the play-off stage of the tournament.