Wallaby jinx broken as Wales open route to knockout stages
● Gatland’s side favourites to qualify as group winners after historic victory over Australia
The bogey has been banished, and Wales’ first win over one of the southern-hemisphere big guns since the inaugural tournament in 1987 has Alun Wyn Jones’s side freewheeling in great heart towards their preferred route through the knockout stages.
It looked in the second half of a predictably gripping match in Tokyo as if Australia would pull off the Harry Houdini impression they have inflicted on Wales so many times in the last decade.
Instead, Wales held on and now sit on top of Pool D, destined to meet the runners-up from the group involving England, France and Argentina in the quarters, which leads on to a semi-final against the victors of a probable last-eight tie between South Africa and the winners of Pool A. There is no mention of New Zealand there, you will notice, and Warren Gatland, the Wales coach, pictured, has already said it would suit him if that little set-to could wait until the final. Australia, you’ll gather, are now heading for a possible quarter with England – and when the watching Eddie Jones’s face popped up on the big screen here, he was roundly booed by thousands of supporters wearing Wallaby gold jerseys.
Australia were not happy with Romain Poite’s refereeing, not happy at all. Michael Hooper, the voluble Wallaby captain, had a prolonged whinge at the Frenchman for giving a penalty and three points to Rhys Patchell after the replacement Wales stand-off ran headlong into Samu Kerevi and was fended off by the left forearm of the Aussie who is a very dangerous runner in open play. Hooper played into the usagainstthe-world narrative already established by coach Michael Cheika over the midweek suspension of wing Reece Hodge, as the skipper called out Patchell for “terrible tackle technique” and asked “can we not run into the tackle any more?” Poite, a former police detective in Toulouse, patiently laid out his evidence that in rugby law, a hand-off must be with the hand, but the grey areas over fault in these high-speed collisions aren’t going away any time soon. And Poite also angered the Aussies with his handling of the scrums.
The opening quarter brought a cross-kick try to each side – Dan Biggar, who had already drop-goaled his side into an early lead, successfully found Hadleigh Parkes jumping above Marika Koroibete on Wales’ right wing in the 13th minute, and Parkes, presumably forgetting any pain from the smallfractureinhisstrappedup right hand, dotted down; then Bernard Foley did likewise to Adam Ashley-cooper for the veteran’s 39th Test try eight minutes later.
By half-time, though, Wales were 23-8 up thanks to scrumhalf Georgia coach Milton Haig insisted patience was key as his side wore down Uruguay on their way to a 33-7 World Cup Pool D win.
Alexander Todua, Otari Giorgadze, Levan Chilachava, Jaba Bregvadze and Giorgi Kveseladze crossed for tries as the Lelos bounced back from their opening defeat by Wales with a bonus-point victory.
Haig said: “It was a fantastic effort by Uruguay (beating Fiji in their opening match) and we just knew that, with a four-day turnaround, it was always going to be tough to last Gareth Davies picking off his opposite number, Will Genia, with an interception at a ruck on the Welsh 10m line. By then, Patchell was on for Biggar, who had failed a head injury assessment after a brave, try-saving tackle on Kerevi.
Drop goals could be coming back into fashion. Patchell skewed over another for Wales three minutes into the second half and it was 26-8.
Then the Wallabies woke up. A try for Dane Haylett-petty was quickly followed by another for Hooper after a long series of penalties and line-outs in the Wales 22, and with two conversions and a penalty by Matt Toomua, on for Foley, Wales’ lead of 18 points was down to one.
Imagine the relief among the Welsh supporters when, on 71 minutes, Patchell 80 minutes. We kept doing what we were doing and thought they would tire in the second half. I’m really proud of the boys and how we played. It was important for us to get this first win out of the way.”
Uruguay coach Esteban Meneses is adamant his side prepared properly for the match but admits his side need to improve at the set-piece. He said: “We prepared physically, technically and mentally. “Georgia are very good in the scrum and line maul. We need to improve in these areas.” knocked over a 25m penalty for a line-out offence. Still, it needed a great escape after Wales conceded a penalty at a 76th-minute scrum – Josh Navidi does not look comfortable at the base, and Ross Moriarty may be a better bet there. The dreaded comeback was averted by a stunning bit of gymnastics from Tomos Williams as the substitute scrum-half leapt way beyond the touchline to keep the Wallabies’ kick for a lineout in play.
The 12th Welsh turnover of the match with 30 seconds left locked them into control of the pool. And while Gatlandpromisedafterwardsnot to take wins over Fiji in Oita on 9 October and Uruguay in Kumamoto four days later for granted, any other outcome would be a huge shock now.