Coach Warren Gatland admits Wales did not practise tackling

The missed tackle on Tevita Kuridrani was one of two that led to Australian tries at the Millennium Stadium.

Wales coach Warren Gatland admitted his side did no one-on-one defensive work ahead of the 33-28 defeat by Australia.

Gatland was disappointed by two missed tackles that led to Wallaby tries, but says long-term planning ahead of the 2015 World Cup took precedence.

"We didn't do a lot of one-on-one tackles in the last couple of weeks," he said.

Defence coach Shaun Edwards backed the policy, saying: "I totally buy into what Warren's doing. Totally."

Israel Folau's first try resulted from a missed tackle by fly-half Dan Biggar.

Tevita Kuridrani broke through lock Alun Wyn Jones and Alex Cuthbert's joint effort while an intercepted Rhys Webb pass gave Folau his second try.

Gatland explained the Wales squad had been concentrating on fitness work, scrums and line-outs ahead of their 10th straight defeat by the Wallabies.

Wales next face Australia in a World Cup 2015 pool match next autumn, and that helped dictate Welsh priorities.

"We think when we face them in the World Cup it's going to be a different beast," said Gatland

"So we said our time together would be a big upward curve and that we'll continue to get better.

"So we pushed them really hard, right to the edge in the last two weeks, and we knew that and we had to freshen them up in the last couple of days.

"And there were things that we prioritised in this campaign and a lot of things that we didn't cover.

"We did quite a bit of scrummaging and we saw the effects of that.

"We did a lot of line-out work under pressure and went 100% on our line-outs.

"And there was one opportunity where we've got some positives out of the way we mauled as well.

"We were pretty restrictive in what we've done the last couple of weeks so I can come away from that saying there's a big tick and a lot of things to continue to work on and knowing that from the way we've prepared we'll get better as this campaign goes on."

Edwards said: "I totally agree with what we're doing. It's all about the World Cup really.

"Structurally I thought half-time I asked for an effort where [there were] no more tries and they gave it to us.

"And I thought our defence second half was very good.

"But as Warren said, we haven't really practised our tackling yet because we've been working so hard on our fitness and it's all about the long-term, really."

Wales face Fiji on Saturday, 15 November before Tests on successive Saturdays against New Zealand and South Africa.

Gatland said: "Next week's going to be a really tough week and we have to back ourselves that we're going to be underdone a bit on the rugby against Fiji.

"But we've got to be good enough as a squad and hopefully the depth in the squad and making a few changes to be able to win."