Wales Escape to Victory

Winning with a last minute score is normally Australia’s modus operandi for defeating Wales but this time the boot was on the other foot. A hushed Principality Stadium held its breath while a cool Rhys Priestland converted a last gasp penalty to give Wales a 29-28 victory. Cue ecstatic cheering and the accompanying feelgood factor as the exuberant fans headed for the watering holes of Cardiff.

In truth, this match seemed to be a closely balanced contest between excellent Australian back play and poor Australian discipline backed up by pinpoint Welsh goal kicking. A red card for Wallaby No. 8 Valetini after fifteen minutes for a high tackle on Beard closely followed by a yellow card for Beale opened the door for Wales. They duly obliged with a smarty worked front peel from a lineout resulted in a try for Elias. This cancelled out an earlier seemingly effortless early visitors’ try by Kellaway after only three minutes and gave Wales a narrow 13-10 lead. Disappointingly Wales could not push the numerical advantage home and an exchange of penalties saw Wales leading 16-13 at half time.

Even with fourteen men the Wallabies had the upper hand in the second half. Their backs looked dangerous whenever they got the ball. It was therefore a surprise when, against the run of play, Tompkins scored a rather bizarre try. Everyone in the stadium apart from the referee thought that he had knocked the ball on when he went for an interception. The players stopped and no one was more surprised than Tomkins when the referee waved play on and he was able to stroll in for a try. The TMO replay showed that the ball had gone marginally backwards and the try was confirmed. “Play the whistle”, I can hear Max Horton shouting in West Mon School all those years ago. This unexpected turn of events gave Wales a ten point lead. Would it be enough?

A rather clumsy attempt at a clear-out at a ruck by Thomas saw him receive a yellow card and, with fourteen men a side, it was a question of whether Wales could hang on to their lead. This became doubtful after White finished over some outstanding Australian back play to score under the posts. The lead was only three points and the Aussies were rampant.

Biggar eased matters momentarily with yet another penalty but the game was really on a knife-edge when more great Australian attacking play saw an acrobatic finish in the left corner by Daugunu. Fortunately for Wales, the conversion attempt hit the post and Wales still led by a single point at 26-25 with ten minutes to go.

The Aussies were on top even though Wales were back to fifteen men and we feared the worst. It looked all up for Wales when Beale converted a penalty to give the visitors a 26-28 lead with a couple of minutes remaining.

To their credit, Wales had other ideas and a break by Gareth Davies saw them just short of the Wallabies try line with time running out. They battered away at the line but the Aussie defence held firm. We were all praying for that all important penalty signal from the referee and at last it came. Up stepped Priestland and the rest, as they say, is history.

This was a very stop-start match with loads of injuries and TMO interventions as well as a high error count. It was not really a great game in that respect. You could only admire the precision of the Australian back play which was exhilarating at times. Sitting behind the posts, the contrast between the play of the two sets of backs was glaring and one can only hope that we can learn from it. Wales continue to be unable to exploit good possession even when the opposition is shorthanded.

A win is a win I suppose, so well done Wales, but this one will go down as one of the more fortunate victories. Has the Autumn Series been a success? Well, winning two out of four is about par for the course I guess but when you look at how Ireland and France dismantled the All Blacks it promises to be a tough Six Nations. There are positives of course: the return of Ellis Jenkins and the wholehearted efforts of young players like Basham and Carter. On the negative side, long term injuries to several key players – Alun Wyn Jones and Josh Navidi to name but two. The big questions remain.  Will Ken Owens, George North and Taulupe Faletau return? Can we develop more reliable set pieces? What impact will Covid 19 have going forward?

Anyway, I don’t need to worry about all that. The most important matter in hand is Pontypool’s visit to Neath next weekend.

Come on Pooler!