Sam Warburton has declared the George North X-Factor can help Wales beat Australia and march to the World Cup final.
The former Wales and Lions skipper, these days a brilliant pundit on the game, has outlined why Sunday's Pool D Tokyo showdown is so pivotal to Welsh tournament fortunes.
Whoever emerges victorious will top the group and have a smoother path through the knockout stages and Warburton made an analogy with Wales' momentum towards the Grand Slam.
"It reminds me of the start of the Six Nations when Warren Gatland said that if Wales beat France in Paris, they would go on to win the Championship," he wrote in a a column for the Times .
"If Wales win, then I genuinely think they can reach the final. That is how important this match is.
"I’m not sure Gatland will have told the team that, but he will know that if Wales win then they can beat France or Argentina in the quarter-final, and then Ireland (Japan) or South Africa in the semi-final.
"I certainly believe they can do that."
Warburton feels the showdown with the Wallabies could be so tight 'it would not surprise me if we had a situation like the final Lions Test against New Zealand in 2017 — a draw.'
But he said: "That would be sitting on the fence. Wales for me. Just. Say 21-19."
Outlining how Wales can achieve that priceless victory, Warburton argued using the strike running of North more frequently was key to the outcome of the match.
"One thing I would like to see is North being used more off the first phase," he wrote. "Wales need to involve him more off scrums and lineouts and get him running at the opposition fly-half.
"He is Wales’s one X-Factor runner. They just need to get the ball in his hands a minimum of ten times in a game.
"Wales’ accuracy from first phase against Georgia was superb. When you throw three genuine runners flat at the line, as they did, it is so hard to defend against, to pick out which man is going to get the ball."
As for the breakdown battle, he pointed out stopping Michael Hooper and David Pocock "is an absolute must."
"I think in the World Cup match against Australia in 2015, Justin Tipuric and I kept them down to just one turnover in the game. That was our aim.
"We knew we had to hit 30 or 40 rucks each to make sure we secured the ball every time. Justin and Josh Navidi will be thinking the same way again."
But he warned: "I’m not surprised that Australia have gone with Will Genia and Bernard Foley at half back. Whenever I played against them they always seemed to have blinders. They really like playing against Wales for some reason."
