Wales assistant coach Shaun Edwards has revealed he used NSW's gutsy 16-12 victory over Queensland in Origin II as motivation heading into Saturday's heart-breaking loss to the Wallabies in Melbourne.
The tourists looked certain to secure their first victory on Australian soil in 43 years, only to be denied by a clutch penalty goal after the siren from replacement flyhalf Mike Harris.
It was a much-improved performance from the Six Nations champions, who scored two-tries-to-one despite being forced to defend for long periods of the 25-23 loss.
"We did use the Blues' performance as a bit of a motivating factor because I mentioned to the guys that they were in a very similar situation to us," Edwards, a former rugby league international for Great Britain, England and Ireland, said in Sydney on Monday.
"They were 1-0 down in a series in a competition they had no recent history of being hugely successful in and I just wanted the boys to come out with same sort of determination and intensity, skill factor and desire level that the Blues did.
"And I think I got that response. I thought it was a really, really good attitude and I couldn't have faulted the boys one iota."
Wales continued the cross-code theme on Monday, with several coaches and players heading to the SCG to watch the Sydney Swans AFL side train.
"Obviously the aerial side of the game in rugby is a huge part of the game nowadays, and I'll tell you straight, the hardest thing to defend is a lost aerial battle," Edwards said.
"So anything you can pick up from experts in that area, which clearly teams like the Swans are ... we're more than willing to do that."
Edwards confirmed the tourists escaped Saturday's brutal clash without injury and ruled out blooding new players this weekend, despite having already lost the series 2-0.
"Let's be honest, if we win the Test on Saturday it'll be the first time in the professional era since 1969 that Wales have won a Test in the southern hemisphere and that's a big goal to shoot for," he said.
"It was a huge disappointment (on Saturday night), an opportunity definitely missed, but hopefully as the week progresses that will slowly turn into a determination to not leave your beautiful shores without a victory in a Test match."
It was a weekend of near misses for northern hemisphere teams, with the All Blacks edging Ireland 22-19, while England lost to the Springboks by nine points in Johannesburg.
Asked to explain the closing gap between north and south, Edwards suggested the southern hemisphere's dominance over recent years can be largely attributed to scheduling.
"There's no doubt if you look at the results over the years the strength has been in the southern hemisphere, but you have to look at the preparation the southern hemisphere teams have," he said.
"The only time we really compete on level footing with southern hemisphere teams is the Rugby World Cup ... because every year Australia, South Africa and the All Blacks have four months together all the way up until the end of November where obviously they finish usually in the UK.
"The northern hemisphere teams normally have a week to prepare sometimes for those ... and I think if you look at the win-loss ratios in the World Cup you'll notice that the northern hemisphere teams do substantially better than they do in the autumn."