Gareth Anscombe has said Wales believe they can pick themselves up from a record-equalling tenth Test match defeat and beat the Wallabies on Sunday.

Wales are arguably at the lowest ebb in their 143-year international rugby history after Fiji’s 24-19 weekend victory in Cardiff.

Watch every match on the Wallabies Spring Tour live and exclusively on Stan Sport.

Another demoralizing result matched Wales’ defeats in 2002 and 2003, although that sequence included two reverses against each of New Zealand, England and Ireland this time, Italy and Fiji having triumphed at the Principality Stadium.

It is more than 400 days since Wales won a Test, beat Georgia in the 2023 World Cup, and a long way from Warren Gatland’s first stint as head coach when he oversaw World Cup semi-final appearances, Six Nations title triumphs, grand slams and world No.1 status.

There are mitigating factors, with players such as Alun Wyn Jones, Justin Tipuric, Dan Biggar, George North, Ken Owens and Gareth Davies all retiring from international rugby in the last 18 months, while Louis Rees-Zammit went to the NFL and injuries have severely hampered the likes of Taulupe Faletau and Josh Adams.

But Anscombe admitted: “We have to get better, and we have to get better.

“Only one win (against Fiji) was good enough, and we didn’t get it. We’ll be hard on ourselves, but I think we’ll be better for the round and know we’ve got to improve and get better better quite Quickly.

“It’s going to hurt, but you can’t dwell on it too long at this level. We’ve got to find a way to get back up.”

Australia come to Cardiff on the back of a spectacular 42-37 success against England, and they have won nine times in their last 11 visits to the Welsh capital. .

Anscombe added: “I still think our best performance is good enough to beat Australia. I think we fully believe that.

“The Wallabies are growing in confidence, so it will be a big challenge, but we’ve had success against them in the past here.

“I know the Wallabies are really well coached under Joe (Schmidt), (but) I think if we can grow another 10-20 per cent in some small areas then we’ve got a real chance.”