Wales play their joker and call in a Baa-Baa

But the Lions scrum half discovered on Monday that the scare in Nantes had not affected his team-mates' sense of humour when he found a sheep in his hotel room.

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This was no inflatable imitation either — the startled animal had proved as much by leaving a mess resembling 'a bag of Minstrels' all over the floor.

As a sign that morale is high within the Welsh camp, this particular practical joke will take some beating. It emerged that a series of pranks at the squad's headquarters on the south Brittany coast had culminated in the stand-in skipper coming face to face with his unexpected guest.

Tom Shanklin, the Cardiff centre who did more than most to turn a 17-9 deficit into a 42-17 victory at the Stade de la Beaujoire, has forged a reputation for off-the-wall stunts. But in his BBC Sport blog, he reveals that this time one of his back-line colleagues was to blame.

The story goes that Mark Jones had been the victim of a couple of 'break-ins' at the hotel. On the first occasion piles of food were left in his room, with fruit crammed into the sink. Next, the unknown intruders raised the stakes by wheeling in so many bikes that he could barely force his way in through the door.

Convinced that Peel was the perpetrator, the Llanelli wing decided to retaliate. Spying a field full of sheep next door to the team base, he climbed in, grabbed one and proceeded to deposit it in Peel's room.

Left there for an hour, the sheep (given the name Boyce, after the Welsh singer) proceeded to make several deposits of its own before being found and returned to its natural habitat.

All the high jinks paint a picture of a squad remarkably at ease in trying circumstances. Wales have been under pressure in light of their poor build-up to this tournament, but evidently the players are not carrying on as if the weight of the world is on their shoulders.

Sunday's difficult Pool B opener against the fired-up Canadians has clearly not dampened their spirits. They faced the grim prospect of a shock defeat for the best part of 50 minutes, but the players' body language on Monday was relaxed, which bodes well for the pivotal clash with Australia in Cardiff on Saturday.

Shanklin believes the second-half comeback, which featured five tries in just 16 minutes, was reminiscent of the all-singing, all-dancing performances of the Grand Slam season in 2005. 'It was as if a switch had been flicked and we were back to the good old days of playing free-flowing rugby,' he said.

'We started playing a bit wider and holes started opening up. We were clinical, making breaks and capitalising on them, not just throwing the ball away.

'That is the way to go now. That style of play suits us but we have to be direct first. The balance was right in the second half, but against teams like Australia you need that for 80 minutes.'

Shanklin is convinced Wales can see off the Wallabies at the Millennium Stadium, so much so that he made a bold statement of self-belief.

'I would say Wales are favourites because we know we can beat Australia,' he said.

'We have won one and drawn one against them in Cardiff in the last couple of years and that is a confidence boost going into this game.'