Wales claimed the elusive southern hemisphere scalp they had been seeking on Saturday, rounding off their autumn series with a well deserved 21-18 victory over Australia.
Newly crowned World Player of the Year Shane Williams and full-back Lee Byrne scored tries for Wales, Stephen Jones notching up 11 points through two penalties, a conversion and drop-goal.
Australia, who lost skipper Stirling Mortlock after two minutes following a collision with Jamie Roberts, who in turn suffered a fractured skull, scored tries through Brumbies lock Mark Chisholm and Digby Ioane, with Matt Giteau knocking over eight points.
Fittingly, it was the Player of the Year who kick-started proceedings, Williams crossing for a scintillating try after four minutes, the build-up for which had echoes of the form that took Wales to last season’s Grand Slam title.
The diminutive winger made a break down midfield and when tackled, made a deft offload to man-of-the-match Byrne who passed to Roberts, the center hauled down by Drew Mitchell 5m from the line.
Gareth Cooper saw the space out wide from the resulting ruck and threw out a huge pass that Byrne picked up from his ankles and quickly shipped on to Williams for his 44th career try and fourth against the Wallabies.
The Australians hit back in the 14th minute, Chisholm pouncing on a misdirected Alun-Wyn Jones tap-down from a line-out, stepping inside Cooper and sprinting 60m unmolested to the line. Giteau kicked the easy conversion.
Giteau then kicked a 25th minute drop-goal after camping out in the Welsh half for a good few minutes had yielded not a decent sight of the whitewash.
From the restart, a spilled up-and-under from Byrne saw Ryan Cross motor away and into the Welsh 22, only to be hauled down by the covering Shane Williams and Tom Shanklin.
No 8 Andy Powell then led the counterattack back at the Wallabies and when hooker Stephen Moore handled in a ruck, referee Alan Lewis had no hesitation in showing the Queenslander a yellow card, while Stephen Jones kicked the penalty.
The Welsh handling became increasingly slick, with offloads aplenty and Byrne crashed over for the team’s second try after the ubiquitous Williams played him through the gap. Jones hit the conversion to hand Wales a 15-10 lead.
Australia were suddenly on the rack, Powell repeatedly testing their midfield defense, Martyn Williams spilling an offload from Cooper with the line at his mercy and the pack being shunted off their own ball — half-time could not come fast enough.
Jones scuffed two easy penalties at the start of the second-half, as Giteau pulled back three points for the visitors and began to marshal his troops well in midfield.
But Jones made amends for his earlier misses with a smartly taken 67th minute drop-goal.
The Welsh pack then withstood a three-minute barrage on their own line, the Wallabies finally infringing to relieve the pressure.
Stephen Jones hit a second penalty in the 78th minute, while Australian winger Digby Ioane crossed for a late consolation try, Giteau missing the hastily taken conversion.
‘AWFUL PERFORMANCE’: Golden State were always chasing the game after failing to threaten from long range, making just eight of 33 three-point attempts Aaron Gordon on Monday scored 38 points as the Denver Nuggets shrugged off the absence of Nikola Jokic to halt the Golden State Warriors’ seven-game winning streak with a 114-105 victory over their Western Conference rivals. A dazzling display from Gordon inspired what was ultimately a comfortable win for Denver, who were missing regular starters Jokic and Jamal Murray from their lineup. The absentees were barely felt by Denver, who startled the Warriors early at San Francisco’s Chase Center and led for most of the game. The Warriors threatened to stage a late rally after slashing the Nuggets’ fourth-quarter lead from 15 points
Barcelona’s Ferran Torres scored twice on Sunday to help secure a late 4-2 comeback win at Atletico Madrid in a pulsating La Liga clash that took the Catalan side back to the top of the table. Barca have 60 points and a game in hand after last week’s postponement of their home game with CA Osasuna. They are level on points with Real Madrid, who won 2-1 at Villarreal on Saturday. “I am happy and proud of this team,” Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick told a news conference. “They never give up... It’s a great three points and we are happy to
Chris Wood has fired Nottingham Forest into surprise UEFA Champions League contention and now the striker wants to score the goals to help New Zealand make history at the FIFA World Cup. New Zealand are strong favorites to qualify out of the Oceania region over the next week and reach the World Cup for only the third time. At the country’s two previous appearances at the finals, in 1982 and 2010, they have failed to win a match in six attempts. With Wood captaining the side and leading from the front, he told local media yesterday that the current squad can finally deliver
Paolo Banchero on Sunday scored 24 points as the Orlando Magic overturned a 13-point deficit to end the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 16-game unbeaten streak with a gutsy 108-103 road victory. Cleveland, the runaway Eastern Conference leaders, had looked poised to extend their franchise-record winning run after surging clear of Orlando early in the third quarter, but after a season where they have staged hefty winning comebacks of their own, the tables turned on Cleveland in the face of a furious burst of Orlando scoring. The Magic outscored Cleveland 35-23 in the third quarter, with Franz Wagner leading the charge with nine points and
RSS