Wallabies cruise to a crushing win over Wales
WALES 8 AUSTRALIA 32
AUSTRALIA cruised to a 12th successive victory over woeful Wales as they ran their hosts ragged at the Principality Stadium.
It was Wales’ heaviest home loss since New Zealand crushed them 46-10 10 years ago.
Wales went into battle without four British & Irish Lions Test players – Sam Warburton, Alun Wyn Jones, Taulupe Faletau and Jonathan Davies.
Foley and Halfpenny, playing his first Test since suffering a World Cup-ending knee injury 14 months ago, exchanged early penalties, but there was no disguising Australia’s dominance in terms of territory and possession.
That control was underlined after just 11 minutes when the Wallabies pack relentlessly drove a lineout towards Wales’ last line of defence, and Moore pounced for a try.
Foley could not add the conversion, but Wales were then temporarily reduced to 14 men when fly-half Dan Biggar was rightly yellow-carded for challenging Wallabies wing Haylett-Petty off the ball as Australia attacked through full-back Israel Folau.
Wales had no foothold in the game whatsoever, and accompanied by a muted atmosphere, there was precious little to be enthused about from a Welsh perspective.
Although Australia could not score when Biggar was off, they quickly made amends by pouncing for two further touchdowns during an eight-minute spell that underlined how far off the pace Wales were.
Hodge scored following brilliant work by Foley and Folau, then Kuridrani crashed through a wafer-thin defence and Foley converted to give Australia a 20-3 interval lead that would have been more emphatic had it not been for some attacking profligacy.
Wales, mainly through the work of openside flanker Justin Tipuric, enjoyed a better spell early in the second half, yet Australia still looked far more dangerous with ball in hand as backs and forwards linked impressively.
And it was only a matter of time before Australia scored again as Wales were once again cut open, and Foley applied a brilliant finish to put the Wallabies 22 points clear.
Williams’ impressive finish at least gave the crowd something to cheer, but such promise quickly evaporated as scrum-half Rhys Webb went off nursing an ankle injury and was replaced by Gareth Davies.
Wales can only hope that Webb will be fit to play a further part in the autumn series, and they at least finished strongly, reserving their best spell for the final 15 minutes with Amos particularly making an impact.
Australia, though, predictably had the final say when Haylett-Petty burst into space to complete the rout, and Foley converted.