Wales salute their heroes
Wyn Jones leads way as legends bow out in style in front of 50,000 crowd
THIS WAS supposed to be a celebration for Welsh greats Alun Wyn Jones, Leigh Halfpenny and Justin Tipuric, as they all turned out for a final time at international level in front of their adoring public, with 53,271 seeing Wales score seven tries as they beat the Barbarians 49-26.
But the pre-match revelation that Fiji lock Api Ratuniyarawa had appeared in Cardiff Magistrates’ Court yesterday, charged with three separate counts of sexual assault, made for grim news.
Ratuniyarawa has been charged with sexual assualt by penetration and sexual assault by touching in incidents with three women in a Cardiff night club last week.
Ratuniyarawa had been due to be a replacement for the Barbarians yesterday. ‘As soon as we were contacted by South Wales Police we co-operated fully, assisting them with their enquiries,’ a statement from the Barbarians read. They declined to comment further during an ongoing investigation.
Barbarians coaches Eddie Jones (below) and Scott Robertson did not front the media post-match.
Ratuniyarawa, 37, denies the charges. The ex-London Irish forward has been bailed with ‘stringent’ conditions, and will appear at Cardiff Crown Court on December 4.
His arrest added another layer of controversy to what was already a disputed game. That this match took place at all angered many, given it was just a week after the World Cup final and on the same day as Wales’ regions were in domestic action.
But that should not take anything away from the feats of Alun Wyn Jones, Tipuric and Halfpenny, who have all had long and fine Test careers.
It was Wales who came out on top in what was an uncapped Test, with Halfpenny ending with a 100 per cent success rate from the kicking tee. He received a standing ovation when he went off.
‘To score 49 points means you’ve got to be happy,’ said Warren Gatland, Wales’s head coach.
Of Halfpenny, he said: ‘The reception he got was a testament to him as a player and person. For those three players to have that game was incredibly special.’
Alun Wyn Jones was man of the match as — like Halfpenny and Tipuric — he bid farewell to Test rugby.
‘I want to thank the crowd who have come here for 18 years through the good times and the bad,’ said the former Wales captain Jones, whose career included 158 Wales caps and 12 Lions Tests. ‘The man of the match was a bit of tokenism. I’ll take it gracefully,’ he said.
Halfpenny, who has been a superstar full-back for Wales for 15 years, led the teams out. Jones and Tipuric followed their former team-mate, this time playing against the country of their birth in the famous black and white hooped shirts.
It was fitting Halfpenny produced a perfect kicking record given his remarkable accuracy from the tee has been one of the defining characteristics of his career.
Wales’s tries came from Dewi Lake, Tom Rogers, Sam Costelow, Taine Plumtree and Aaron Wainwright before Kieran Hardy added a late brace.
Simione Kuruvoli, the Fijian halfback, crossed twice for the Barbarians before Jones scored surely the most popular try of the afternoon. Australia lock forward Tom Hooper’s try was a late consolation for the Baa-Baas, before Hardy got to work.
Having said goodbye to a host of retiring greats at this fixture, Wales now have to look to the future. The 2024 Six Nations could be tough — it ‘will be a challenge on us’, Gatland admitted — but the coach remains optimistic. George North, who had a fine World Cup and another decent game here, is one reason for Welsh positivity.