The Wallabies have raised the stakes for Saturday's showdown with Wales, insisting they are as desperate to win at Millennium Stadium as the Six Nations champions - who admit to being obsessed with claiming a prized southern hemisphere scalp in their last Test of 2008.

After near misses this month against South Africa and New Zealand, the Welsh have been banging on all week about the importance of beating Australia to confirm their newfound status as a top-five rugby nation.

The Wallabies, though, have their own agenda as they strive to complete a four-Test spring tour undefeated for the first time in more than a decade.

"There is a hell of a lot riding on this game. This is do or die for us, last game of the season; we could have a clean sweep here," Wallabies winger Peter Hynes said on Wednesday.

"We're taking all that into the game. I think it's going to be very physical and confronting."

So confronting, in fact, that Australian assistant coach Michael Foley believes the Wallabies will be up against the "the fastest line speed defence in world rugby".

Foley, who formerly coached Bath in the English premiership, says Gatland and his assistant Shaun Edwards - the ex-British rugby league international - have moulded Wales into a fearsome defensive unit similar to the Wasps side which they guided to European Cup glory.

"Wasps won premierships and titles on the back of creating possession from their tackling," Foley said.

"They were the first team that, I think, went out there with defence that was offensive.

"They got intercept tries, they got tries from people receiving the ball as they hit the tackler; the ball was spilt, toed through and, you know, Wasps had this enormous try tally. And a lot of it was from that.

"They really set a trend in defensive rugby ... you're seeing Wales very good in that area, particularly in the line speed."

Foley said the blitz-style defence involved a high degree of coordination from the entire Welsh backline and, if they got it wrong, Hynes felt it could actually prove an area where the Wallabies could exploit the Six Nations kings.

"They push very hard from the outside in. The thing is with doing that type of D, if you breach their line, they're particularly vulnerable," Hynes said.

"Obviously they get terrific line speed but, once you get in behind them, the outside guys have already gone past and it's hard for them to turn and chase.

"That's certainly going to be an area we target."

Despite beating Italy, England and France in successive weeks, Hynes admitted the Wallabies had yet to really put a side to the sword on the tour and were eager to make a statement against the Welsh.

"This being the last real Test match of our year, we're really looking forward and the challenge there is to play that 80 minutes of footy and to dominate," he said.

"Wales are a very good opposition and will try to stop that, but we're going to focus on what we have to do and if we can impose our game plan, we'll come away smiling."

There was disappointment for one Wallaby on Wednesday when Wycliff Palu was sent back to Australia to have treatment for a recurring shoulder injury.

The destructive back-rower was the third squad member forced home early after centres Timana Tahu (hamstring) and Berrick Barnes (knee) suffered tour-ending injuries against Italy.

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