Former rugby league star Shaun Edwards has revealed the Welsh rugby union team used the example of the underdog NSW State of Origin side as motivation before the second Test against the Wallabies.

As the final score of 25-23 in favour of the Wallabies suggested, it didn’t quite work.

Edwards, a Great Britain rugby league international who is now the defence coach of the Six Nations champions, said he saw a lot of similarities between the Welsh and the Blues who were also 1-0 down in their series and were outsiders against Queensland.

“Most of the guys watched the (Origin) game. They (NSW) were in a very similar situation to us,” Edwards said.

“They were one-nil down in the series in a competition they had no recent history of being hugely successful in.

“I just wanted the boys to come out with that same sort of determination and intensity, skill factor, desire level, that the Blues did and I think I got that response.”

The cross-code connections continued for Wales on Monday, when some of their players and coaches attended a training session of AFL club Sydney.

“Obviously the aerial side of the game in rugby is a huge part of the game now and I’ll tell you straight the hardest thing to defend is a lost aerial battle,” Edwards said.

“Anything we can pick up from other sports we’re more than willing to do.”