Match winner: Berrick Barnes
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For the second time in as many weeks Australia needed a late penalty to edge past Wales, winning 20-19 in an engrossing clash in Sydney.
Berrick Barnes landed a penalty five minutes from full-time to break Welsh hearts after yet another spirited display from the visitors.
The result leaves Wales winless against the Wallabies on Australia soil since 1969.
When the dust settles, the Welsh will have some long analysis to do, both on themselves and on Craig Joubert, who had a big influence on the game. He attempted to lay down the law as strictly as possible, but ended up breaking the rhythm and causing frustration a little too much, while also failing to deal with a lot of unwillingness to scrum properly from both sides. Australia responded slightly better overall but both teams looked scared to attempt things at times, too desperate at others.
They'll also reflect on the bounce of the ball which took James Hook's long hack downfield into touch milliseconds before the chasing Hook, 10 metres ahead of his nearest opponent arrived to gather it. Sometimes you just can't buy a break.
But there's little point in the Welsh screaming at Joubert or Lady Luck. They could also look to the number of restarts they failed to deal with and the two clear penalties in the 73rd and 74th minutes, of which first cost them good attacking position and the second the winning three points.
There was nothing to choose between the teams at half time in rugby terms but Barnes' fourth penalty just before the interval gave Australia a 12-9 lead - the four penalty to three scoreline an indication both of the broken rhythm of the game and the incessant stream of penalties. The second half was better as the teams tired and the game broke up naturally.
It took 61 minutes for the first try to be scored, but when Ryan Jones crashed over under the posts on a pick-and-go after Alex Cuthbert's run Wales took the lead for the first time and were good value for it. More precise on attack and threatening with ball in hand, the scrum was beginning to turn the screw as well.
The try drew an immediate response though - again from one of those spilled restarts - and the defence, panicked, folded in and left Rob Horne oodles of space outside. Even then, Horne almost butchered it, ending up controlling the ball between forearm and leg as he touched down. the TMO deemed that enough downward pressure and Australia had the lead back.
Leigh Halfpenny's fourth penalty - his second from 50 metres - with ten minutes left on the clock put the Six Nations champions back in front to set up a grandstand finish.
Barnes held his nerve, however, to split the uprights in the 75th minute to give Australia a one-point win and a 3-0 series clean sweep.
Man of the match: Try-scorer Ryan Jones and Jonathan Davies had strong games for the Welsh. A mention too for Barnes, who was near faultless from the kicking tee and landed the winning points with a cool swing of the leg. But we'll go for Wallaby skipper David Pocock who was a constant thorn in the side of the Welshman at the breakdown.
Moment of the match: The TMO made big call when he awarded Rob Horne's try. At first glance it looked like the centre lost control in act of going over. It would have ben extremely harsh to deny the try and, in the end, it turned out be a game-changing decision...
Villain of the match: No nasty stuff to report...
The scorers:
For Australia:
Try: Horne
Pens: Barnes 5
For Wales:
Try: R. Jones
Con: Halfpenny
Pens: Halfpenny 4
Australia: 15 Kurtley Beale, 14 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 13 Rob Horne, 12 Pat McCabe, 11 Digby Ioane, 10 Berrick Barnes, 9 Will Genia, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 David Pocock (c), 6 Scott Higginbotham, 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 Sitaleki Timani, 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Tatafu Polota Nau, 1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements: 16 Stephen Moore, 17 Ben Alexander, 18 Rob Simmons, 19 Dave Dennis, 20 Michael Hooper, 21 Nic White, 22 Anthony Fainga'a.
Wales: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Jonathan Davies, 12 Ashley Beck, 11 George North, 10 Rhys Priestland, 9 Mike Phillips, 8 Ryan Jones, 7 Sam Warburton (c), 6 Dan Lydiate, 5 Alun Wyn Jones, 4 Bradley Davies, 3 Adam Jones, 2 Matthew Rees, 1 Gethin Jenkins.
Replacements: 16 Ken Owens, 17 Paul James, 18 Luke Charteris, 19 Justin Tipuric, 20 Rhys Webb, 21 James Hook, 22 Scott Williams.
Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Jaco Peyper (South Africa), Jonathon White (New Zealand)
Television match official: Vinny Munro (New Zealand)
Comments
lacroix says...
Joubert really is a disgrace. his laughable RWC final perfomance seems to have inspired him to yet greater depths of inconsistency and poor decisions.
still , i dont think wales did enough to deserve to win this.
Posted 08:40 24th June 2012
makemehappy says...
@jappers1983 "Granted though, the Charteris obstruction call was a strange one, but once the decision is made, accept it!" - I'm sure you mean - make sure another idiot referee doesn't repeat the mistake? Accepting mistakes is a bit naive, I would have said.
Posted 08:26 24th June 2012
whykikamoocow says...
hard to see the wallies being ranked 2 in the world on these performances.both teams were cod ordinary.at the end of the day a wins a win. 'dingo' will need all hands on deck for upcoming 4 nations.pack is still a worry
Posted 08:10 24th June 2012
blindmice says...
Let's remember that a referee is a reactive force to the actions of the players. A referee can be proactive in his talking prior to a player looking to offend or talk to him on the run between plays and warn them when they are venturing to the edge of his tolerance. However, he can't stop players that want to blatantly infringe. Hartley in the Bokke/England game a prime example and Walsh did what he said he was going to do.. 10 mins young man he says...
Joubert was technically correct in almost all decisions he made (see below) and i can't recall any other incident where i looked at the box and said "no way"... What he did lack was the pro activeness to start getting the warnings going or the card out. an early warning for all the offences could have been timely to both teams around the 20 min mark.
in terms of the scrums, Adam Jones was a dastardly little devil when on the referee blind side. Continually binding on the arm and pulling his opposite in/under. He also manufactured at least one PK that way right under the nose of Joubert which was disappointing that the ref was fooled by it.
However, neither side can complain about the ref impacting the result. he was consistent with both sides at the breakdown and in his interpretation of the laws. Players kept pushing the envelope because of his failure in getting tougher than just continual PK's. But, it was the players causing it, not Joubert.
Posted 07:12 24th June 2012
sandal says...
Congratulations Australia. And I am sure these last three games will have done them good. But how did they get so lucky? First Flip van der Merwe at the World Cup, now this.
Following South Africa's example, Wales threw away each of the last two games by conceding soft penalties at the death. Each was a clearcut penalty, but there was no need for either of them.
That is stupid, stupid rugby and Wales need to be honest in asking themselves what they did wrong in this series.
Posted 06:07 24th June 2012
anotherfarce says...
@Trader2
Your baby blacks were also easily accounted for by the baby boks, the score didnt reflect the game, arrogance is a downfall in the making.
Australia constantly took the scrum to ground as they did in the previous week, a weaker pack will always exploit this where there are no warnings or yellows.
Trader I think you know how bad the officiating was in this game without me pointing it out, pedantic calls is one thing but Saturdays effort will make for further enquiry, no doubt.
I have watched 3 tests SA v Eng where the games were good examples of how it should be done, a fairly obvious statement when compared with this debarcle.
Posted 04:20 24th June 2012
isthatrightref says...
@ anotherfarce is the ulimate proof of the old line that you never beat Wales you just score more points than them. Joubert could've been a touch harder on the oz scrum (& I use that term as loosly as the Wobbly front row & flankers bind) but at the end of the day Wales just weren't good enough again & let themselves down again with poor discipline & option-taking... that said, 1 - 2 would've been a fairer reflection than 0 - 3.
Posted 02:42 24th June 2012
Dingo says...
Wow what a lot of NH whingers blaming the ref and accusing the Wallabies of cheating! Wales lost because of poor disciple in the the last 5 mins (same as the second test). That said, its great to finally see a NH side playing attractive running rugby (thanks to Kiwi Warren Gatland). Looking forward to seeing the Wallabies take on the Welsh on their home turf in December. Should be a great match.
Posted 01:30 24th June 2012
ABlack says...
Wales should have won
Posted 22:30 23rd June 2012
new_j4a says...
@Trader2, words of wisdom....deep wisdom.
Posted 22:18 23rd June 2012
new_j4a says...
@Trader2, words of wisdom....deep wisdom.
Posted 22:09 23rd June 2012
pembs says...
The only thing we've learned from this series is that oz are slightly better at cheating than us. We need to improve our cheating
Posted 19:18 23rd June 2012
JonnyDragon says...
Hook @ 10............
Posted 18:00 23rd June 2012
jappers1983 says...
Joubert weren't that bad. He reffed the breakdown as any southern hemisphere ref would, if anything it's poor leadership by Wales for not playing to this. Similarly, Wales were terrible at clearing out at the breakdown. If you can't clear the first man out than he has every right to keep playing the ball.
Granted though, the Charteris obstruction call was a strange one, but once the decision is made, accept it! It was football-esque from Charteris after that. Also, Wyn-Jones' handling at the restart....atrocious. Austalia also had Wales' backline sussed, i counted one clean break (J Davies) in the whole game. As good as Priestland's distribution is, he has NO running game, so offers no threat. Australia could afford to drift an pretty much ignore him.
But yes, apart from that, all Joubert's fault.
Posted 16:03 23rd June 2012
marko72 says...
Eh....are these Welsh players a bit thick? Must be kicking themselves after penalized in dying seconds of game....again!
Posted 15:50 23rd June 2012
Trader2 says...
Good to see @anotherfarce is still with us, he had gone so quiet since his baby Reds got hammered in the JWC semi I thought he may have slit his wrists, but he is back blaming the ref again so good show old bean and look on the bright side you could be Irish. That reminds me of one of the nicest guys I have ever met, in Kinsale (Co. Cork) a few years ago, he is gone now but he loved his rugby and was a proud Welsman, thank god he never had to see the BS you go on with. "Be responsible, take responsibility and improve" he would say "then you will make your mark." @anotherfarce someone you never met obviously.
Posted 15:25 23rd June 2012
anotherfarce says...
@Auntie_social
Just exactly where were Australia dominating the Welsh Scrum??
To many cuckoo's in your beer mate.
From memory last time Wales played SA was at the RWC where they lost that game by 1 point. We wont talk about the penalty that also went over, but the TMO was refused when asked for???
Thats by the by now, but lets see if Australia can get within a point of the Boks in the upcoming 4N, what ref are you going to fly in for that one????
Posted 15:12 23rd June 2012
anotherfarce says...
@Jonesy2
"joubers had a pretty bad game and i think wales benefited but it was hard to say"
What game were you watching mate??? Oz took the scrum down 3 times in as many feeds just short of your own line (no warnings or yellows). Joubert was diabolical & I guess that one will go through the process at the IRB, & it certainly kept Aus in the game, I didnt see anything in his performance that helped Wales.
On that performance he couldn't hold a candle to (Wayne Barnes).
I guess you should watch the game again, but with 2 eyes this time, (just call a spade a spade)
Man of the series without question "Joubert"
Posted 15:00 23rd June 2012
Trader2 says...
Just watched a recording of this game please someone tell me that I just didn't see the 2nd ranked team in the world v the 4th ranked. That game was horrible the ref only looked bad because the players obviously do not know the rules. A beautiful Sydney afternoon made for running rugby and what we got was c..p. The Welsh were really quite naive again having no idea how to close out a game. As for the Wannabies well I guess Beale will be better with a couple of S15 games behind him, Barnes was steady and has been a relevation to me anyway. The scrums were a joke and I have asked this before but do not have an answer what is the % of scrums that are reset when the Wannabies are playing viz-a-viz the other say top 6 nations. I think that Oz front row are little like the Aussie rower in Greece who lay down in the boat when things got tough, or maybe I am a little unfair and they were just tired.
Posted 14:41 23rd June 2012
anotherfarce says...
@Ramage
Are you speaking from your 25yrs experience as a ref again???
Posted 14:36 23rd June 2012