Australia……………………… 25pts
Tries: Tupou 21, Daugunu 53, Wright 69
Conversions: Lolesio 21, Lynagh 69
Penalties: Lolesio 6, 14
Wales……………………………. 16pts
Tries: Penalty 24
Penalties: Thomas 3, 45, 65
Almost everything was in Wales’ favour to try and end their miserable run of seven consecutive defeats but another inept performance from them gave Australia their first win in Sydney since beating France there 10 years ago.
Last September Wales beat Australia 40-6 in the World Cup fixture in Lyon so it’s a remarkable turnaround in the fortunes of the respective sides as Wales failed to capitalise against a team who haven’t played at all since that catastrophic result.
In addition, Australia have appointed a new coach in Joe Schmidt, who chose to include home-grown players only in his squad before being able to undergo just four training sessions with them resulting in seven debutants in the match-day 23.
In contrast, Wales have played eight games since that famous night in Lyon but there was little sign of improvement and following on from the blood and thunder of the compelling New Zealand v England encounter it was in footballing parlance a third division match as opposed to a Premier League one.
Wales could still have nicked the the error-ridden contest as some tight calls didn’t go their way but it would have been rough justice on Australia as they were always the more penetrative as evidenced by scoring three tries to one.
Wales head coach Warren Gatland said: “We hurt ourselves with the number of turnovers, that didn’t help and the soft penalties we gave away early on hurt us. We know where we are at the moment. We are developing this team. They are going to have to learn from those experiences.”
Aaron Wainwright led out Wales to celebrate his 50th cap and his side were soon ahead when Ben Thomas nailed his first kick after James Slipper, on his 135th appearance for the Wallabies, was penalised for a no-arms tackle.
Noah Lolesio soon responded with a simple penalty but soon after surprisingly missed with another straightforward attempt.
The first scrum duly arrived and it saw the visitors retreat rapidly on their ball to concede a penalty and this time Lolesio made no mistake.
Wales continued to feel the wrath of French referee Pierre Brousset who was making his Tier 1 debut, with Lake, being warned after a sixth penalty was conceded by his side in the first 18 minutes.
This ill-discipline had to count and it did when Taniela Tupou proved unstoppable from close-range with Gareth Thomas sin-binned for collapsing an earlier driving maul.
Wales looked in deep trouble bit remarkably they produced their first period of pressure and were rewarded with a penalty try when their seven forwards forced Wallabies to collapse a potent lineout drive with Fraser McReight joining Thomas in the sin-bin.
Both players returned before half-time at which point Wales trailed 13-10 but a minute after the restart Thomas was forced to withdraw with a leg injury.
Pain: Wales players at full-time
However his namesake, Ben, brought Wales level with a penalty before Filipo Daugunu took advantage of some poor positional defending to tear through a huge gap and hold off Mason Grady’s tackle to score.
James Botham was introduced as a replacement for Taine Plumtree and his first touch was to ground a formidable lineout drive but the try was disallowed as replays looked to show an obstruction from Welsh players in front of him.
Australia appeared to have made them pay for their error when Lolesio chipped for the corner but an airborne Andrew Kellaway couldn’t grasp the ball to touchdown. That was Lolesio’s last piece of the action as Tom Lynagh, son of Aussie great, Michael, came on in his place and in time to see Ben Thomas kick his third penalty.
The game was firmly in balance but Australia produced a magical moment to seal victory. Lynagh collected an aimless kick to feed Tom Wright, who evaded both Nick Tompkins and Grady on a 50 metre run to the line for a superb individual try. That score clearly epitomised the difference between the two sides. In the last two games Wales have managed just two tries, both from close-range lineouts, and, despite Gatland’s incessant chopping and changing, the backs couldn’t create a try till the cows come home.
Starting at scrum-half, Ellis Bevan is a reliable box-kicking player but no threat at all to opposition defences. The injured Tomos Williams is badly missed but the veteran Gareth Davies, who is on the trip, is still the best attacking option as evidenced by the large number of tries he has scored for both Scarlets and his country.
At outside-half, customary centre Ben Thomas was thrown in at the deep end to play with composure but once again when the chips are down and the game seemingly lost the replacement outside-half, normally Ioan Lloyd but this time Sam Costelow, throws caution to the wind enabling the side to play with more urgency.
The centre partnership is an unholy mess. Owen Watkin is a dependable defender but offers little in attack and poor Grady is switched from pillar to post and therefore it’s no surprise that his defensive alignment is found wanting. His preference seems to be at 13; Gatland picked him first as an 11 then settling on a 12 before shunting him back to 11 when Tompkins was introduced. A cross-field kick from the outside-half therefore seems Wales’ only option of scoring through the backs and if one is focusing on the future, leaving young Cam Winnett out after six decent games in trying circumstances didn’t seem to be a good option.
Up front, the forwards battle hard but at times it seems Wainwright and Lake are going to war on their own as few back them up in the ball-carrying stakes. The lineout malfunctioned and the scrum faltered so overall there has to be a serious rethink in terms of policy or a distinct improvement if Wales are going to break their losing run in Melbourne next week and win in Australia for the first time since June 1969.
