Rugby World Cup 2015: Wales aim to banish Australia 'burden'

Scott Baldwin claims his try against Fiji in Wales' win over Fiji

Scott Baldwin admits some of his team-mates might have Wales' 10 consecutive defeats by Australia on their minds when the teams meet on Saturday.

The World Cup match will decide who tops Pool A with both teams unbeaten.

The 27-year-old Ospreys hooker has played in only one of those defeats, which stretch back to 2009.

"I think with some of the boys it might be in their minds they want to get that burden off their shoulders," said Baldwin.

"It's only one defeat for me and it hasn't been spoken about in the forwards.

"But again it's not so big a burden this weekend, there's excitement going in to it.

"The match gives us the opportunity to finish top of the group and the knowledge that we've already qualified so we can play a bit more, and that's what the coaches have emphasised."

Wales' last success against the Wallabies came in 2008 when they emerged 21-18 winners at the Millennium Stadium.

Since then, Australia have won 10 on the bounce, with seven of those by a margin of seven points or fewer.

Pack of problems

Australia's dominant scrummage in their 33-13 win over England was one of the surprises of the tournament.

Traditionally the Wallabies scrum has been considered a weak point to attack by their opponents, with the English in particular profiting prior to last weekend's events at Twickenham.

The Welsh scrum, but contrast, struggled against England and Fiji in this tournament when Wales won 28-25 and 23-13.

Baldwin says it is an area Wales have been working on.

"It's about collective effort," he said.

"I think the front row has had issues the last couple of games, but I think we showed in the Six Nations that we can we put that right.

"So it's just getting everyone in cohesion. Hopefully we can get all the cogs working this weekend and we can get parity for our backs."