Eddie Jones' Wallabies in Rugby World Cup purgatory praying for Portuguese miracle

Rugby Australia hatched a plan to bring Eddie Jones back to the helm of the Wallabies over a Portuguese chicken dinner at the home of Hamish McLennan last year - now they need Portugal to upset Fiji in Saint-Etienne this weekend to make the move seem even remotely worthwhile.

The Wallabies kept their slim quarter-finals hopes above water with a 34-14 win over Portugal in their final pool game, scoring four tries to secure a bonus point which pushes Australia [11 points] above Fiji [10 points] into second in their pool.

Now, with the Wallabies' pool matches all in the rear-view mirror, they have to sit and hope world No.16 Portugal - who have never won a World Cup match - beat Fiji by eight points or more during their final pool game on Monday morning.

Australia's hopes will be dashed if Fiji win, draw, or get a bonus point for a loss by seven or fewer or by scoring four tries.

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The Wallabies will take three days off before returning to training for a match that may never come, with Jones' squad seemingly destined to become the first Australian side exiting the World Cup before the quarter-finals.

"The disappointment is we haven't controlled our own destiny," Jones said.

"In a pool stage you want to control your own destiny and we haven't done that. As I've said, I take full responsibility for that.

"We've done all we can and the [Fiji versus Portugal] game will take its course - we don't control the result so I'm not going to spend too much time worrying about it.

"We've had our go in the World Cup and we're sitting where we are and we accept our position.

"If it happens that we get another chance so be it, and if it doesn't we've only got to look at ourselves."

Should the Wallabies progress, they will do so without a specialist flyhalf with Carter Gordon set to be ruled out of the tournament with a knee injury.

Nick Frost's tournament is also over after the lock was taken off with a knee injury early in the second half of the win over Portugal.

If the Portuguese miracle plays out as the under-pressure Jones hopes it does, the Wallabies would face England in a quarter-final.

"I've never experienced this before. We're anticipating we'll be in the quarter-finals so we'll see on Sunday night - Portugal played with plenty of spirit tonight so you never know," Jones said.

"We've got a program in place; we're going to have three days off and then we'll have three days of good training and we'll look to get better.

"We want to finish next week better than we are now. That's the aim and if we get an opportunity to do that on the field, fantastic."

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