Rugby: Australia are sweating over the fitness of star full-back Kurtley Beale ahead of Sunday's Rugby World Cup semi-final against rivals New Zealand.

Beale is rated as “touch and go” by the Wallabies after he suffered a hamstring strain in the dying minutes of Australia’s 11-9 quarter-final victory over defending champions South Africa.

“He’ll be a massive loss for us because Kurtley provides so much to the team, not only in attack but just in the mood and excitement of the group,” said Wallabies centre Adam Ashley-Cooper.

“We certainly have our fingers crossed for Kurtley.”

Ashley-Cooper has played centre, wing and full-back for the Wallabies and he relish the opportunity to switch positions if called upon.

“I’ve played my best football where I’ve actually been changed that week, so I’ll welcome that challenge if it occurs,” said Ashley-Cooper.

“It’s the unexpected, isn’t it? I’ve always put a lot of pressure on myself and there’s always a lot of butterflies, just trying to have faith in the selection and prove the critics wrong.”

Ashley-Cooper is one of only four players left in the tournament to have played every minute of his side’s World Cup campaign - and he has been driven by the bitter memories of 2007.

Australia were overpowered by England in the quarter-finals in Marseille and

Ashley-Cooper said: “The whole (of last) week I was reflecting on the result back in Marseille and just what it felt like post game.

“I tried to share as much as I could with the blokes around me on the feeling they would encounter if we came up short, how unpleasant it is.

“To get the result and go on further than we did four years ago was just pure relief.”

The Wallabies produced a defiant rearguard action to beat South Africa in the

quarter-finals. It was not a typical performance from an Australia side, which plays with audacious attacking instincts.

Australia also bounced back from a hiding to beat New Zealand in the Tri-Nations decider in August and lift the title.

“I don’t know if I could be more confident (to beat the All Blacks),” said scrum-half Will Genia. “I don’t want to sound arrogant, I’m not that sort of bloke. I really believe in the guys that we have in this group that we can do it.

“We’ve got to put ourselves in a position where we can play rather than

looking to defend for the whole game. We want to play to our strengths, which is obviously our attacking style of running rugby. We need to give ourselves that opportunity.

“We pretty much won that game (the quarter-final against South Africa) on

sheer guts and character. We made about 150 tackles to their 50, so we defended for about 70 minutes of the game. We were stoked with the win, which was pretty much built on guts.

“But if we play like that against the All Blacks, they’ll put us away. We’ve

got to make sure we execute a lot better.”