SHAUN Edwards stressed Wales “can’t switch off for a second” if they want to finally end their Australia hoodoo and beat the Wallabies this Saturday.

The Wigan and Great Britain rugby league legend underlined his side’s need for complete concentration if they are to turn the Aussies over at the Millennium Stadium this weekend.

Wales haven’t been on the winning side against their old foes since the time the then Grand Slam holders triumphed 21-18 in Cardiff back in November 2008.

The doughty men in gold have won the last eight on the bounce and really broken Wales hearts by coming out on top of half of those successes in closely fought encounters, two in the last plays of the game.

“We have to play for 80 minutes, mentally and physically,” Wales defence coach Edwards said.

“We cannot switch off. Tactically we have to be absolutely perfect. Physically we are in better condition than we were in this time last year. The conditioning staff have done a really good job with all our players and I think we're peaking now.

“But it's no good me talking about it. We have to show it on Saturday. We cannot switch off for one second because it happened to us in Melbourne, Sydney and in the last game we played against Australia (the Wallabies won those nail-bitters 25-23, 20-19 and 14-12 respectively).

“The quality of opponents we are playing against means that any crack in any part of the game will be exploited.”

Meanwhile Edwards confirmed wing Alex Cuthbert could make a shock return to the Wales side to face Australia.

The huge wing has been with the Wales squad and is being "assessed" by national and Cardiff Blues medical teams, the latter from his regional side.

The British and Irish Lions star, who scored a try in the tourists’ 23-21 first Test win over the Wallabies in the summer’s 2-1 series victory, was expected to miss the whole of the autumn series with an ankle injury picked up playing for Cardiff Blues in the Heineken Cup in October.

"Fingers crossed he could potentially maybe be fit," said Edwards.

He also said Scarlets pair, centre Scott Williams (toe) and wing Liam Williams (ribs) are both progressing well in their bids to be fit.

Ospreys lock James King has joined the squad while Perpignan pair, outside-half James Hook and second row Luke Charteris, as well as Bath prop Paul James, have returned to their clubs, ruled out of the Wallabies showdown because they haven’t secured full release clauses in their contracts.