Rugby: Wales will want payback - Higginbotham

Leigh Halfpenny is tackled by Australia's James O'Connor (left) and Berrick Barnes during last year's Rugby World Cup bronze playoff. Photo / Natalie Slade

Aggressive flanker Scott Higginbotham is convinced Wales will have "payback" on their minds when they clash with the Wallabies in Cardiff this weekend.

Higginbotham has come to know Wales pretty well over the past year.

The 26-year-old, on Sunday, will play his sixth Test against Wales since October when Australia edged the Welsh 21-18 in the third-place playoff at the Rugby World Cup last year.

Wales, world cup semi-finalists and 2011 Six Nations champions, slumped to a sixth consecutive Test loss last weekend when they went down 33-10 to the All Blacks in Cardiff.

Half of those six losses were against the Wallabies, who beat them 3-0 earlier this year in Australia.

Melbourne Rebels' recruit Higginbotham says while there are personnel changes in both squads, the Welsh will be hurting from what happened in Australia.

"They were close games and we got up in all three of them and I'm sure they'll want a bit of payback," Higginbotham said.

"It's tough playing a series like that where it's the same team three straight weeks. You get a lot of time to watch each other's game and by the time you get to that second and third match it's always going to be a close score because you do know each other so well.

"You can come pretty close to predicting what a team is going to do."

The biggest winning margin of the series in Australia came in the opening match which the Wallabies won 27-19 in Brisbane.

Only two points separated the teams (25-23) in Melbourne while Australia won the final game of the series 20-19 in Sydney.

Another motivating factor for Wales is they have lost their past seven Tests against Australia.

The last time they beat the Wallabies was at Cardiff in 2008 when they toppled the visitors 21-18 in coach Robbie Deans's first year in charge of Australia.

"They'll be right up for it, especially after that game against the All Blacks on the weekend but we're here to get the job done as well," said Higginbotham who has played 22 Tests.

"They are a tough side to play and they play a similar brand of football to the southern hemisphere game. It's very quick and they attack the opposition breakdown out wide and in close.

"They are a very physical team and that's the type of team I like to play against."

Prior to their loss to the All Blacks, Wales lost to Samoa and Argentina.

"It was a bit disappointing to see them go down to sides that I thought they'd win against recently," Higginbotham said.

"Just because a team is off form doesn't mean they can't change that in a week. Our boys did that from the French to the English game and we won't be taking them lightly."

Higginbotham played his first game of the European tour in a brutal 22-19 win over Italy in Florence last weekend.

The No.6 missed the first two matches of the tour against France and England because he was serving a two-game ban for headbutting and kneeing All Blacks captain Richie McCaw.

-AAP