Sunday 11 October 2015 13:29, UK
Alun-Wyn Jones accepts that Wales have made it tougher for themselves in the World Cup after losing 15-6 to Australia at Twickenham on Saturday.
Victory over the Wallabies in the Pool A decider would have meant a quarter-final clash with Scotland next Sunday for Wales, but they must now tackle South Africa 24 hours earlier, and if they win that, then New Zealand potentially await in the last four.
World Cup history is also stacked against Wales, with no team during seven previous stagings having won the tournament after finishing runners-up in their group.
"If we are going to win the World Cup, we are going to have to do it the hard way," Jones said. "Nobody has ever done it from finishing second in their pool, but there has got to be a first.
"We have lost to one southern hemisphere team, but if we're going to progress to where we want to be, then we are going to have to beat another two.
"South Africa faltered in their first match against Japan but, like a lot of teams, they have grown throughout the tournament.
"We pushed them last summer and gave a good performance to beat them last autumn. I think they still have a point to prove after their initial performance [against Japan]. They will be disappointed with their start, but they have grown into the tournament and you can't discount them."
Wales failed to capitalise on the scoreboard when Australia had two players - Will Genia and Dean Mumm - sin-binned on Saturday, and Jones added: "We were held up [over the line] three times.
"We should have capitalised when they were down to 13 men, but we didn't, and you have got to move on. When you are a man down, it goes very slowly, and when you are a man up it goes very quickly.
"We didn't capitalise, probably through a fault of ours, and that we didn't finish it is credit to them [Australia] and their resolute defence as well. When we look at it, I think it will be pretty obvious what went wrong. We didn't make any rash decisions, but we didn't score."
Wales beat South Africa 12-6 in Cardiff when the countries last met 11 months ago, and Jones' second-row partner Luke Charteris added: "I think our defence was the difference that day.
"When you look back, whenever we have a big win our defence has usually been a massive part of that. That was the pleasing thing from Saturday that our defence was really good to hold an Australia team to no tries.
"You have got to go into every game thinking you can win. You are coming into a quarter-final of a World Cup, and it is going to be a massive game whoever you play.
"They are very fine margins at the top of the game. We have to make sure those fine margins go our way."
