By Sam Ryan

It wasn’t pretty, ugly in fact, but Australia did the one thing that they needed to do. They survived and now advance to a World Cup semi final against Argentina.

Scotland were exceptional from the opening whistle and terribly unlucky in the end. Brutal in defence, accurate in attack and opportunistic at every moment.

Australia were the contrary.

I guess one positive Michael Cheika can take from the match, is that the Wallabies now know exactly what not to do in a knockout match of a World Cup.

The other, was Bernard Foley once again proving his worth in the moments that matter, despite a disappointing overall night with the boot.

But then there was the rest.

Chip kicks, intercepts and poor ruck defence, there was enough to age Michael Cheika a generation.

With his two biggest weapons in the stands, Cheika’s Wallabies produced a sub par performance for the second straight week, but still did just enough to claim victory, just enough to survive and advance.

And at a World Cup, that’s all you need to do.

You’d like to think that we won’t see Bernard Foley chip from within his 22 again at this World Cup, and James Slipper won’t be rushing to first receiver anytime soon, but as I’m sure we’ll hear from Camp Wallaby this week that’s all in the past.

Now, Australia must regroup and prepare to face an Argentinian side playing with more confidence then ever.

We could spend all day talking about what the Wallabies did wrong this morning, but at the end of the day, they did the one thing they had to do.

As we learnt in 1995 and 2007, World Cups can end very quickly. But this morning, it didn’t.

This morning, the Wallabies survived and advanced.