WILL Genia confessed his nerves were jangling when he was sat on the sidelines watching his 13 team-mates hold on under the Welsh onslaught.

His Wallabies team-mates pulled through 15-6 to top Pool A in the Rugby World Cup after the scrum half was sent to the sin bin for tackling his opposite number Gareth Davies within 10m when the Welshman took a quick tap.

Minutes later, he was joined on the naughty step by Dean Mumm for a dangerous challenge in the lineout as the pair watched on helplessly as Warren Gatland's men laid siege on the Australian line.

The gold wall was unbreakable despite 15 Welsh sledgehammers, but it made for tense viewing for Genia.

"I was so proud of the boys, they dug deep and worked really hard for each other," he said.

"It was very nerve-racking to watch, bit very impressive at the same time.

"It's just hard work and trusting and respecting your team-mates.

"It's one of those things where you build bonds and you go through the grind together of busting a gut to work hard at training where you build that trust and respect.

"That comes out on the field."

It was the second big win in as many weeks for Australia following their 33-13 thrashing of England a week earlier and Genia noticed the Welsh back row put more pressure on the Wallaby back row than Chris Robshaw's men.

He said: "Last week was obviously a lot more free-flowing and we were able to move the ball around.

"This week they really put a lot of pressure on our breakdown so we weren't able to get much rhythm or momentum in terms of our attacking game.

"We've spoken at large about having to work hard at both sides of the ball - attack and defence - and defensively there was a big performance from that point of view."

The Australian media team are either working over-drive, or Michael Cheika has genuinely got his side engrossed in the notion of taking every day as it comes and trying to improve a little bit every training session.

Talk to any of the players or the main man himself, and it's the same message.

But Genia said his impact as head coach should not be underplayed.

"I think it's been massive," he said.

"His big thing was coming in and creating the identity of what it means to be a Wallaby and as a person.

"Everyone has been bought into that and being that person.

"If we live that every single day then we will get better as people and as players."

They are widely tipped to win the competition, and with Scotland up next followed by one of Ireland or Argentina in the semi final, the Wallabies are a safe bet for a final spot.

But Genia is not interested in the favourites tag and toed the Michael Cheika line.

He said: "We don't buy into that sort of stuff.

"For us it's the day-to-day grind of working hard each and every day, try to improve things we think we need to be better at and then, come game day, executing so that we can perform and get a result."