Hi everyone, Welcome to this week’s review of the Wallabies v Wales. The game was played in Melbourne in damp conditions; for mine, they should’ve played it in Brisbane where it was clear, sunny, and 20 degrees today.
The commentary team said that Slipper is now the most capped prop in the history of rugby. Congrats Slips, you’re a legend.
What Hoss said
So for the record, here is Hoss’s fearless prediction from Friday; well, at least an abridged version of it. By the way, I corrected the original error by Nathan, that was perpetuated by Hoss.
Fearless Prediction: Wallabies will be better for the outing. If they can extend that first 20 minutes form from the first test into a whole 40 minutes, it will be all over by halftime. Wallabies by 22.
Wallabies (15-1): Tom Wright, Andrew Kellaway, Josh Flook, Hunter Paisami, Filipo Daugunu, Noah Lolesio, Jake Gordon, Charlie Cale, Fraser McReight, Rob Valetini, Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, Jeremy Williams, Taniela Tupou, Matt Faessler, James Slipper Replacements: Josh Nasser, Isaac Kailea, Allan Alaalatoa, Angus Blyth, Langi Gleeson, Nic White, Ben Donaldson, Dylan Pietsch
Wales (who really cares) (15-1): Cameron Winnett; Liam Williams, Owen Watkin, Mason Grady, Rio Dyer; Ben Thomas, Ellis Bevan; Taine Plumtree, Tommy Reffell, James Botham; Dafydd Jenkins, Christ Tshiunza; Archie Griffin, Dewi Lake (capt), Gareth Thomas Replacements: Evan Lloyd, Kemsley Mathias, Harri O’Connor, Cory Hill, Mackenzie Martin, Kieran Hardy, Sam Costelow, Nick Tompkins
The Game – first half.
The game started with plenty of kicking, some loose passes, lost ball, and general feeling of dross. Then boom, on 5 minutes, off the back of a loose pass by Noah, the Wallabies went from left to right within their 22, then a moment of brilliance by by Kellaway with a kick and chase, and a spectacular hand off to who else but Fraser McReight, who didn’t have the legs but found Filipo Daugunu who did and ran it in untouched to score. Talk about making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
The Wallabies scored next through a penalty, then after a sustained period of good defence, solid hits, and paying through the rain, the Wallabies scored through Jake Gordon, who chased his own box kick, and scored. 17-0 . It’s almost a 14 point turnaround by Gordon there who made a great tackle covering tackle inside the 22 after the Welsh got in behind.
The next bit of action saw the Welsh score a very good try through the rolling maul, they made it look easy to get on the board. 17-7.
Australia’s work at the breakdown is telling through the middle of the first half, with Fraser McReight, and Hunter Paisami earning key turnovers. Hunter’s was a bit in vain though as Lukhan saw yellow for a high shot. Wales went to the corner and scored off a rolling maul. Either the Welsh maul is awesome, or our maul defence isn’t very good. That’s definitely a work on.
Penalty to the Wallabies off the restart for 23-14. Massive hit there by Rob Valetini, completely legal and gave the Wallabies the chance to get over the ball.
Half-time sees the Aussies with a 23-14 lead. It was certainly combative and when if I refer to the G&GR craparazzi chat, our Welsh correspondent Eloise had this to say: “I don’t think either coach will be really happy. But it looks like the Wobs fluked one try, one arguably came from applying pressure (so good) and one came from the plan. Wales got unlucky once for the held up, scored two tries in ways that the Wobs must have worked on during the week, because it’s how they scored last week too… The Wobs might count themselves really lucky to be ahead.”
A few takeaways from me:
- footwork at the line is super effective, Faessler has, it Cale has it, Hunter Paisami has it
- power at the point of contact is so critical, Bobby V, Taniela Tupou, and James Slipper had it in the first half
- Jake Gordon is playing well, both sides of the ball.
The Second Half
The second half started much like the first half with a few errors, and then some sustained pressure and possession saw Liam Williams score for Wales. Successfully converted, the score is 23-21 to the Wallabies.
There is some off the ball stuff between Williams and Cale that leads to a penalty to the Wallabies, and after a few phases 7As drives over for a try. Conversion attempt hits the post for 28-21 .
I was just thinking that gee, the second half was boring when Liam Williams copied James Lowe last week and knocked the ball back to Filipo Daugunu to score an unexpected try. 33-21.
Just when you might have thought the Wallabies should try to find a way to keep on playing, a lackadaisical exit, including yet another (maybe 5) charge down for the Welsh to score. 33-28.
Some back and forth, and then the Welsh were penalised for being in front of the kicker, and after a quick tap by Tom Wright, and it was called back for a penalty by Donaldson, 36-28. And that’s full time. The Wallabies finish with two wins in a row and manage to close out a close test match.
Credit to Nic White for acknowledging the crowd at the end.
Anyway G&GRs, that’s enough from me, over to you. Look forward to the comments and the ratings.
Player Ratings
