Wales pay the price for not racking up points as young Wallabies steal it
WALES failed to turn second half dominance into points as they were punished by Australia during their Under-20 World Cup opener in Georgia.
Jason Strange’s team made too many mistakes, coughing up precious possession with alarming regularity at Tbilisi’s Avlacha Stadium, and will now face a tough job to reach the top four semi-finals with defending champions and Junior Six Nations Grand Slam kings England their next opponent.
Wales led for most of the first half, regained it with 24 minutes remaining and drew level with a drop-goal from outside-half Arwel Robson with less than three minutes remaining but conceded a soft score.
They failed to deal with the restart and were quickly punished by Australia, dangerous centre Izaia Perese sprinting outside Wales substitute No.8 Aled Ward for the winning try.
Wales had made a brilliant start with Robson finding his Newport Gwent Dragons’ team-mate Ellis Ship with a perfect cross-kick in the fifth minute.
The hooker went forward and popped the ball up for centre Cameron Lewis to race over for Robson to convert.
Robson was off-target with a longrange penalty attempt in the 16th minute while Jim Botham, the grandson of cricketing superstar Sir
WALES U20 ...................... 17 AUSTRALIA U20 ............. 24
Ian Botham, was ‘hit for six’ by Simon Kennewell after being on the end of a ‘hospital pass’. Irish referee Frank Murphy, the former Munster and Leicester Tigers scrum-half, decided it was a dangerous tackle, sin-binning the Australia left-wing.
Australia scrum-half Harrison Goddard nailed a penalty in the 31st minute following a high tackle by Wales.
And they took the lead four minutes before the interval after getting a shove on at a scrum to win a strike against the head.
They pulled the Welsh defence one way then the other to create the space for full-back Liam McNamara to score in the corner, Goddard expertly converting to put them ahead for the first time.
Full-back Will Talbot-Davies saved Wales in the final play of the half with a terrific tackle on Henry Hutchison to dislodge the ball.
Wales needed something from somewhere and Botham provided it, bursting off a scrum in his half and racing clear.
He drew a covering defender and put scrum-half Dane Blacker over for a sensational try, Robson nailing the difficult conversion to put Wales back in front.
But Australia didn’t panic and quickly reclaimed the lead with McNamara making an incisive run before substitute prop Harry Johnson-Holmes burrowed his way over.
Substitute scrum-half Harry Nucifora converted to give them a threepoint advantage only for Robson to level it with his drop-goal, but Wales promptly threw it away. Wales U20: W Talbot-Davies (Dragons); O Lane (Blues), I Nicholas (Scarlets), C Lewis (Blues), R Conbeer (Scarlets); A Robson (Dragons), D Blacker (Blues); R Carre (Blues), E Shipp (Dragons). K Assiratti (Scarlets), W Griffiths (Ospreys), C Bradbury (Blues), S Lewis-Hughes (Blues), J Botham (Blues), W Jones (capt, Ospreys). Subs: O Hughes (Dragons), T Mably (Blues), S Jenkins (Scarlets), S Moore (Pontypridd), A Ward (Blues), R Morgan-Williams (Ospreys), B Jones (Blues), J Goodchild (Dragons). Tries: Lewis, Blacker; cons: Robson (2); drop-goal: Robson. Australia U20: L McNamara; H Hutchison, I Perese, S Tuipulotu, S Kennewell; H Stewart, H Goddard; C Walker, J Uelese, S Vui, R Mccauley, H Hockings, A Scott-Young, R Hewat (capt), L Wright. Subs: E Maafu, S Malolo, H Johnson Holmes, L Swinton, R Valentini, H Nucifora, N Jooste, S Tupou. Tries: McNamara, Johnson-Holmes, Perese; cons: Goddard, Nucifora (2); pen: Goddard. Referee: F Murphy (Ireland).