COACH Steve Hansen has appealed to the public to help Wales become one nation in the drive to restore its position as one of the world's leading rugby powers again.

Hansen's stock has risen sharply over the past three weeks as he guided Wales to qualification for the World Cup quarter-finals with a revenge victory over Italy and then pushing the top two countries in the world, New Zealand and England, all the way.

Wales scored four tries against the All Blacks and held the lead after an hour before going down 53-37, scoring their highest points total against New Zealand.

Then yesterday in Brisbane Wales rocked England, rated number one in the world, by scoring three tries to one and leading at half-time only to go down 28-17 as Jonny Wilkinson kicked 23 points to put his side into a semi-final against France.

"Hopefully that has put a smile back on the faces of people and the country and will get us more sponsors because we need them," said Hansen.

"People need to be excited and get behind the changes. I know changes are sometimes frightening, but we have to join together and become one nation rather than a group of villages.

"If that happens we will all be pleased with what we can achieve." Wales' respect in world rugby has been restored after a series of performances few thought possible before they left for the World Cup.

"We have been building and building, we came to the World Cup to qualify and we did that without showing how we wanted to play against the big sides who work away via the video analysis. We had to keep things up our sleeves," said Hansen cagily.

Hansen also described Wales' World Cup exit at the hands of England as gut wrenching. "It's no consolation now, but every sportsman and coach competes because he wants to win. It's gut-wrenching when you are losers, but when we reflect on it the whole country can feel proud," he said.

"We asked them to do a job, to play through the August internationals, to qualify for the World Cup quarter-finals and stand up to New Zealand and England in seven days. You couldn't ask for more other than actually win.

"But life is sometimes like that, you've got to move on. Now it's back to the regional sides to carry on the good work there and then look forward to the Six Nations."

England coach Clive Woodward paid Wales a grudging sort of tribute when he said: "Wales were outstanding, they played very well.

"They had nothing to lose and it was the best performance from a Welsh team since I've been in charge, including the Wembley game we lost. Wales did themselves proud, but they still lost."