WALES captain Sam Warburton has backed his decision to kick for the corner following 15-6 defeat to Australia in the Rugby World Cup.

The flanker's side were beaten to top spot in the pool of death despite taking the lion's share of territory (67%) and possession (63%).

With the Wallabies down to 13 men after first Will Genia and then Dean Mumm disappeared to the sin bin, Wales had a succession of collapsed 5m scrums waved away by referee Craig Joubert.

With time ticking away on the scrum half's ten-minute sanction, Warburton opted for the corner instead of a shot at goal to bring Wales within three points or another scrum.

His English counterpart was hounded for a similar decision a fortnight ago, but the captain stood by his decision despite coming away pointless.

He said: " I know it's a hot topic now, but yes, I do [stand by it].

"I felt we needed a try to beat Australia and we were six points down so it would've been two penalties to bring us to a draw.

"They were two men down so I think any country would've backed themselves to go over, which is why it is disappointing that we didn't manage to get more from the scrum or the driving lineout especially as they were a man down in the pack.

"That was disappointing but at the same time I think Australia defended really well.

"They have to take credit from that.

"Sometimes you've got to put your hands up and say, "you've defended great".

"I'm still proud of our performance.

"We backed ourselves and I don't think we could've done much more.

"We threw everything at them so at least I can sit here and I don't have any regrets.

"We tried everything, you just have to give credit to Australia's defence.

"I thought we were extremely close a few times and backed ourselves to go for the corner seeing as they were two men down.

"You have to give Australia credit for that because as a 15 we were really hungry for that try."

Both sides were herculean in defence and Wales managed to stifle the most potent attacking side on the planet.

"I was pleased from our perspective that it was a tryless performance against one of the best attacking teams in the world," Warburton added.  

"I thought we were aggressive in the contact area, so there's a lot of positives to take out of it.

"But I think the big lesson is that if we spend that much time in their 22, we have to come out with a try.

"If we'd managed to do that it would've put Australia under pressure."

Australia now have the easier route to the final - and look good money to do so - with Scotland in the semi final followed by France or Ireland in the semi final.

For Wales, they face South Africa next and a likely semi final against New Zealand will await the victors.

Warburton, who shifted to the blind-side to accommodate Justin Tipuric on the open-side, said his side goes into the Springbok clash with no fear.

"Well, we beat South Africa 11 months ago and the game before that out there we played well and could easily have come away from there with a win if it wasn't for one incident," he said.

"Even though we were down initially [having lost to Australia], we're still looking forward to a World Cup quarter final.

"We've beaten them once in the last 12 months and we can take massive confidence from that.

"If there's one thing this group of players don't mind it's a challenge, and it's a great challenge next week.

"That's what great teams are made of - being able to bounce back and I'm more than confident we can do that because we've proved we can in the past.

"So, we're disappointed with the loss, but we're definitely backing ourselves for next week."

This group of players has experience beyond their years - and they're ready for the test.

Warburton's usual back-row comrades are Dan Lydiate and Taulupe Faletau - both gained their 50th caps against Fiji last week at the ages of 27 and 24 respectively.

George North has 54 caps to his name at just 23, Jamie Roberts has 73 caps at the age of 28 and Warburton himself has 59 Wales appearances having turned 27 last week.

The skipper said: "We've had three huge games recently and the players we've got now - there are a lot of players with a lot of caps who are used to big games so they're used to dealing with that.

"You look at the boys and the way they're walking around today and the way they conduct themselves, they're quite used to the big stage.

"We felt very confident going into this game and our mindset for the other games has been good, so it's just another game for us.

"It's what we want to do.

"We want to play in the big games.

"We're lucky to be playing at Twickenham, which is a fantastic stadium, in front of 80,000 people every week.

"It's an absolute privilege and next week will be the same."