Wales forwards coach Robin McBryde maintains only the narrowest of margins are separating the RBS 6 Nations champions from beating Tri-Nations giants Australia.
Australia have a 43 year home unbeaten record against Wales and wrapped up the current series with a 25-23 victory last Saturday.
But that was only achieved through a last-gasp penalty from Wallabies replacement Mike Harris and McBryde history is firmly within his side’s grasp heading in the final Test.
He said: “We’re not that far away, we’re not looking at great deficits as was the case in the not too distant past.”
“As much as there were certain aspects we didn’t get quite right, it did boil down to the last two minutes. It was that close.
“It is quite hard to lose in those circumstances but it is quite heartening to know that we were that close to getting what would have been a quite famous victory having not won here for so long.
“We have to take a bit of confidence from that and look to go that one step further on Saturday.
“The players have been to the World Cup and proved a few doubters wrong.
“They backed it up with a successful RBS 6 Nations and they are all about creating a little bit of history for themselves.
“And this is their last opportunity. But it speaks volumes about the group that we’re no longer content with pushing teams close, we need a win.”
While Australia might have an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series, McBryde is not expecting the Wallabies to take their foot off Wales’ throat in Sydney.
He said: “We have a sense of realism, they are used to winning against us, that’s a big factor.
“And they’ll keep on going until the very bitter end because they don’t want to be the first southern hemisphere side to lose at home to Wales.
“So they are going to dig deep and the unfortunate thing is we gave them an opportunity to come back on Saturday.”
