Quade Cooper stole the show in his 50th test as the November test series came to an exciting close with Australia once again edging out Wales at the Millenium Stadium.
WALES 26 vs 30 AUSTRALIA
Saturday, November 30, 17:00 GMT, Cardiff
Lady luck shined upon Wales early, as George North’s questionable decision to kick with support runners inside paid dividends when Adam Ashley-Cooper accidentally deflected the ball into the end zone instead of touch, and the Welsh dynamo pounced on it for a lightning start. Leigh Halfpenny nailed the conversion, and then added a penalty goal and Wales suddently had as many points as there were minutes expired on the clock.
Christian Leali’ifano opened Australia’s account shortly before Halfpenny was gifted another penalty from a Rob Simmons mistake, but then a bit of antipodean genius changed the complexion of the match. Michael Hooper turned the ball over and it was moved wide to Ashley-Cooper, who fixed two players and passed to Quade Cooper. The Wallaby maestro flipped it out the back of his hand to Joe Tomane, who in turn put a lovely ball back inside to Leali’ifano who went over for a scintillating try.
The momentum was now firmly in Australia’s favour but three times they failed to convert certain tries. First it was Cooper again with an even better backhander to Tomane but Genia flat out dropped the try scoring pass. Another scoring pass from Leali’ifano was picked off by Ian Evans, and then Israel Folau was held up over the line after stepping Alex Cuthbert and looking for all money that he was in.
Dan Biggar was sent to the bin for killing the ball in the process, and finally the Wallabies made it count as Folau bumped off Mike Phillips to go over, but not before two thumping tackles from North and Richard Hibbard reminded them that nothing would come easy. Leali’ifano’s conversion gave Australia a one point lead heading to the break after a breathtaking forty minutes of rugby.
Australia picked up where the left off as the second half quickly yielded another penalty and then a try to Tomane, who showed great hands to snag a slightly wayward pass from Folau to extend the lead. When Leali’ifano kicked his third penalty goal to spread the gap to 14 points, it looked as though the game was getting away from Wales.
Liam Williams replaced namesake Owen, sliding North into outside centre, and the move paid off almost immediately. A hard inside line put the Northampton star through the middle and a step to the left beat the cover defense as he slid under the posts. Biggar was replaced by Rhys Priestland following the conversion and he added a penalty goal to bring Wales within striking distance, but the Wallaby defense held and they came away with the well-earned victory.
SCORING
02 mins – G. North try 5-0
03 mins – L. Halfpenny con 7-0
11 mins – L. Halfpenny pen 10-0
13 mins – C. Leali’ifano pen 10-3
18 mins – L. Halfpenny pen 13-3
19 mins – C. Leali’ifano try 13-8
20 mins – C. Leali’ifano con 13-10
31 mins – D. Biggar pen 16-10
37 mins – I. Folau try 16-15
38 mins – C. Leali’ifano con 16-17
43 mins – C. Leali’ifano pen 16-20
49 mins – J. Tomane try 16-25
50 mins – C. Leali’ifano con 16-27
52 mins – C. Leali’ifano pen 16-30
59 mins – G. North try 21-30
60 mins – D. Biggar con 23-30
69 mins – R. Priestland pen 26-30
CARDS
35 mins – D. Biggar yellow (professional foul)
74 mins – Q. Cooper yellow (professional foul)
WALES
L. Halfpenny; A. Cuthbert, O. Williams (L. Williams 50), S. Williams, G. North; D. Biggar (R. Priestland 63), M. Phillips (R. Williams 71); G. Jenkins (R. Bevington HT), R. Hibbard (K. Owens 63), Rh. Jones (S. Lee 66); A.W. Jones, I. Evans; D. Lydiate (J. Tipuric 63), S. Warburton (capt.), T. Faletau.
AUSTRALIA
I. Folau; J. Tomane (B. Foley 74), A. Ashley-Cooper, C. Leali’ifano (M. Harris 62), N. Cummins; Q. Cooper, W. Genia; J. Slipper (B. Robinson 63), S. Moore (T. Polota-Nau 70), S. Kepu (B. Alexander 56); R. Simmons, J. Horwill (K. Douglas 60); S. Fardy, M. Hooper, B. Mowen (capt.) (D. Dennis 70).
Referee: W. Barnes (RFU)
Assistants: A. Rolland (IRFU) & J. Lacey (IRFU)
TMO: J. Yuille (SRU)
