The new-age Wallabies are tantalisingly close to sweeping a four-Test spring tour of Europe for the first time in 12 years after escaping with a nailbiting 18-13 victory over France in Paris on Saturday night.

In a virtual carbon copy of their success over England the previous week, the Wallabies let a useful lead slip before recovering from a second-half deficit to bank another priceless away win over one of their northern-hemisphere nemeses.

The Wallabies can now head to Wales on Sunday knowing victory over the Six Nations champions would match the rare feat of the 1996 Australian tourists who strung together victories over Italy (40-18), Scotland (29-19), Ireland (22-12) and Wales (28-19) on consecutive Saturdays.

"If we can win this next one, that's obviously a clean sweep of northern hemisphere teams while we've been over here and we haven't done that for a long time. Obviously that's a big thing for us," man of the match Matt Giteau said.

Although they outscored Les Bleus two tries to one, the Wallabies only avoided defeat thanks to a nightmare display with the boot for French flyhalf David Skrela.

Skrela missed five shots at penalty goal - including two in the last 10 minutes that would have put the home side in front - plus a simple drop goal attempt in the first half.

"It was tough. It wasn't straightforward," Wallabies coach Robbie Deans conceded.

"You could suggest missed kicks had an impact but I would suggest that when you look at the game itself, we did have good composure in the game, we did have good field position and, personally - and it's only one man's opinion - I believe the result was just."

Giteau admitted Deans' eternal optimism was having a profound influence on the Wallabies, who have now scored three gritty comeback wins in a row.

The classy five-eighth, who threw the key pass in the movement which led to Peter Hynes's match-winning try in the 58th minute, said he never gave thought to the Wallabies losing.

"Amongst the group, we've got a lot of self belief. We do talk about it consistently because it is true," Giteau said. "In a tight game, you never think about anything negative.

"Robbie's always talking about feeding the good wolf in the mind. You've got a good and a negative wolf and we were feeding the good wolf. It's something among the group we do do.

"You think of the positives and especially being the playmaker, you've got to look for opportunities. You can't dwell on (anything) and think we're going to lose this one. You've got to look at how we're going to get out of this one."

The triumph, Australia's first on French soil - and by exactly the same scoreline - since 2000 was all the more commendable given Deans had to reshuffle the backline just three hours before kick-off.

With Ryan Cross forced out after being struck down by a nasty virus, Deans knocked on Adam Ashley-Cooper's door 20 minutes before the Wallabies boarded the team bus for Stade de France, advising him he'd be starting at outside centre instead of fullback.

Drew Mitchell moved to fullback, with Digby Ioane having a storming game after earning a late promotion off the bench and starting on the left wing.

"Quite often in the past, I don't think we would have got home there," Wallabies captain Stirling Mortlock said.

"But the belief and our ability to stay composed, in particular, to seal the game was excellent.

"Very, very happy with that."

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