'Let the country down': Wallabies players react after stinging Wales defeat

The Wallabies were left shattered and despondent after a 40-6 defeat to Wales in Lyon.

The side were beaten in most areas of the game, enduring their worst loss in Rugby World Cup history.

It all but ensures they will miss the knockout stages for the first time in the history of the event.

Following the game, players were left in agony on the ground as the magnitude of the defeat sunk in.

Captain Will Skelton was wiping away the tears as he addressed the group

As the players walked through the mixed zone to chat with the media, the pain on their face was evident.

Here is what they had to say:

DAVE PORECKI

"We apologise, we let ourselves down. We let Australians down but we will bounce back. We shift our focus to next week, earn a bit of respect back through our performance. Everyone is gutted, I don't have too many words to say to be honest."

BEN DONALDSON

"We’ve let ourselves down, we’ve let the country down and everyone in Australia. It wasn’t too much we could say in the sheds other than we weren’t good enough.

"We thought we were good enough, we did all the prep and we know we trained really well off the back of last week. We thought we were going to put a good performance in and it was clear out there we weren’t and we have to own that."

ANDREW KELLAWAY

"Gutted, absolutely gutted.

"I don’t know if it was a lack of experience, I think we just got bashed. At the set-piece they beat us, they out kicked us. They showed us how to manage a game.  Pretty well every area of the game tonight we got beaten. You can call it what you want, we got beaten at rugby unfortunately. I don’t know if that’s an experience thing, that’s just a rugby thing"

TATE MCDERMOTT

"That was obviously incredibly disappointing.

"That's a result we're going to have to live with. We let not only the people who supported us in the crowd down from Australia, there was heaps of fans out there."

ANGUS BELL

"Very disappointing mate. Pretty raw at the moment, how much emotion all the boys are showing - it's a devastating day and I guess it's pretty raw at the moment.

"We're shattered. It's hard for us to put into words, I guess at the moment. But yeah, we're just sorry that we let down a lot of people back home. Obviously, there's a lot of people that came over to France to support us also. And the people back home who got up early mornings to support us. So we're incredibly disappointed."

RICHIE ARNOLD

"It’s a tough pill to swallow, we let the country down, we let ourselves down – pretty embarrassing to be honest.

"F*** mate, what didn’t go wrong? I thought we started well and then we just got into a bit of a grind, they just wanted to play in that grind, into that boxing and then a crucial lineout there, an attacking lineout, we stuffed the lineout, they got a 50/22 and that was a big momentum change."

CARTER GORDON

"Obviously gutted, we let each other down. We let the country down.

"We started well, it's obviously frustrating to be knocked out of the World Cup like that. We have one more game, we are going to have to regroup."

SULIASI VUNIVALU

"It was a bit quiet but everyone is still positive. We have got another game next week and we’re looking forward to it. 

"It’s a tough one to swallow but we’re not done here. We have one more game next weekend and we have to up our game next week. Everyone is pretty tight and will be gutted for the next 24 hours. We’ll be back."