Monkey’s off the back now let’s make it a clean sweep
“Everything pointed to this being the best opportunity to beat Australia in 14 matches”
The Australian jinx is finally over. Now for Wales’ first autumn clean sweep! I can’t tell you how delighted I am we’ve finally beaten the Wallabies. Those 13 defeats in a row over the past decade really hurt. Now the boot is on the other foot.
It was great hearing Wallaby skipper Michael Hooper say just how much it hurt to lose a tight game. The confidence this result will bring to the Welsh squad will be massive and will help to build further momentum.
Last week was the first time in 16 years we’d won the opening game in the autumn. Now it is an unprecedented two from two. That is going to put the pressure on the boys who play against Tonga this weekend. Winning becomes a habit and emerging victorious from tight games is the mark of a good side. Just look at how New Zealand downed England at Twickenham earlier in the day.
They weren’t at their best, but still won. It was a similar story for Wales later on.
That’s now seven wins in a row – the best by a Welsh side in 13 years and the best in the Gatland era. The Welsh record is still 11 in a row from the first ‘Golden Era’ way back in 1909, so there is a record to aim at for the current crop if they can maintain their standards.
Tonga will be tough, especially with multiple changes likely, but it looks as though there is enough strength in depth in this Welsh squad to potentially cope with whatever they can throw at us. That would then leave us shooting for a fourth win in a row over the Springboks to complete a cleansweep.
But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. Winning against the Wallabies was great, but if I’m honest, it was hardly a classic 80 minutes of rugby at Principality Stadium. Australia are a long way away – right now at least – from the high standards they usually expect of themselves and this was their 10th defeat in their last 13 matches. From their point of view, that’s simply not good enough.
It’s not just us who have beaten them in the past year, but also New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina, Ireland, England and Scotland. That’s for Australia to worry about, though, and Wales won’t care at all about that. This result will give them a huge and vital boost of confidence, especially with next year’s World Cup in mind.
The most pleasing aspect of this Welsh win for me was that it felt like it was now or never for Warren Gatland’s side. Everything pointed to this being the best opportunity to beat Australia in 14 matches. Now, that would have delivered a great deal of pressure on the players.
For them to embrace that and come out on top can help take Wales to the next level this year. Now they’ve got the experience of winning tight matches against big southern hemisphere teams in their back pocket, the world is their oyster. The challenge now has to be to continue this vital momentum.
In my international career we had some great results against big teams, but they were often one-off occasions which we failed to backup. Hopefully, this team is different and can be more consistent. You’d expect Wales to beat Tonga on Saturday and after that, it’s South Africa in the final game of the series.
Our recent record against the Springboks is very good and that means the players won’t be fearing them. They are coming to the end of a long hard year, while we traditionally improve the longer we spend in camp. Senior players will get a break this weekend to give them a chance to peak against South Africa. While it’s vitally important to look to the future in analysing this win over Australia, the immediate aftermath of victory showed me that Wales’ big players all stepped up when it mattered most. Forwards Ken Owens and Alun Wyn Jones are real leaders in this squad and both were exceptional. Then there was Justin Tipuric. How good was he?
That’s two man of the match awards in a row now!
I loved the moment at the end when Alun Wyn admitted that when he was told by the referee that he should ask the No.7 not to talk to him, he calmly explained he was now his club captain and he obviously felt he had the right to chip in. Priceless!
Dan Lydiate showed he has still got a lot to offer at this level and I was really impressed with the way in which Ross Moriarty put his head down, grafted from start to finish, and produced one of the most polished and disciplined performances of his career. His one collision with David Pocock in the second half was huge and left the two warriors licking their wounds.
How cool was Dan Biggar at the end? He is such a competitive animal he would have relished that moment of kicking the win- ning penalty. The bigger the occasion and the greater the pressure, the better he reacts.
Dan showed nerves of steel to slot that kick after only being on the field for a matter of minutes, but I also thought Gareth Anscombe had another fine game at fly-half. He’s really showing Warren that he has to keep hold of the shirt moving forwards. Dan was only on the field after a shocking late hit on Halfpenny by Samu Kerevi.
Before that happened I couldn’t believe I had seen Leigh miss two simple kicks at goal. I did think that might cost Wales dear, but he responded brilliantly with a series of brilliant runs in attack at the start of the second half. That showed me he truly is a world class player, but I thought the late tackle on him by Kerevi should have been a penalty at the least.
It was probably a yellow card, too. It forced Leigh off for a head injury assessment and we can only hope he’ll be fine to face South Africa in the final game.
By then, hopefully Wales will be three from three. The challenge for the guys who face Tonga is to not let the standard of performance drop. Guys like Jonah Holmes, Aaron Wainwright and Owen Watkin are all likely to get a run and now it’s over to them.
On the back of this result though, confidence should be sky high. Well done Wales, but let’s make sure this is just the start!