It came down to the last few minutes but the Wallabies are through to the Semi-Finals after a nail biting 35-34 win over Scotland at Twickenham.
Despite scoring five tries to three, it came down to a Bernard Foley penalty goal in the final minutes to see off a brave Scotland side that deserved a victory after pressuring the Wallabies all throughout the game, particularly around the ruck where the absence of David Pocock was telling.
The Scots can consider themselves very unlucky after a number of calls went against them from referee Craig Joubert who might find it difficult to holiday in Scotland any time soon.
The Match
The Wallabies were off to a good start in the opening five minutes putting the Scots under intense pressure with quick ruck ball giving the Wallabies a great attacking platform that should have resulted in a try for Bernard Foley but he unselfishly passed the ball when falling over may have seen the opening try.
Eventually the Wallabies cracked the Scottish line with Adam Ashley-Cooper sent on his way 20 metores untouched to line after Tevita Kuridrani bumped off a tackle before drawing the last defender off a well worked backline move.
Scotland then worked themselves into the game, finally able to use the ball with their forwards making small yards around the fringes and winning the rucks. Greg Laidlaw opened their account with a penalty goal and just before the 20 minute mark they hit the lead with Peter Horne finding a gap from a ruck with the Wallaby defence asleep.
Laidlaw added another penalty from a collapsed scrum penalty and as the half wore on they put the Wallabies under pressure with rush defence causing the Wallabies to try and push passes that weren’t required.
The Wallabies went back to using their forwards to regain some composure and after patient buildup with a number of phases in the Scottish 22, Kurtley Beale found Drew Mitchell on the left wing for the Wallabies second try.
Laidlaw landed his third penalty off another scrum infringement and with half time looming the Wallabies found themselves with the choice of kicking at goal or touch. They went with the latter option and went to the rolling maul and Michael Hooper came up with the ball and edged his way over for the try.
Foley’s kicking woes of the first half continued as he missed his third conversion to see Scotland with a 16-15 lead at the break.
Scotland suffered a blow early in the second half when Sean Maitland was given a yellow card that should never have been for an alleged deliberate knock on near the 22 which was a horrible call.
The extra man advantage was too much and Will Genia spotted Mitchell and he dived over for his second try of the match to put the Wallabies back in the lead at 22-16.
Scotland responded with another Laidlaw penalty and then Ashley-Cooper thought he had his second try but it was called back for a small knock on from Will Genia at an earlier ruck.
The game became a bit scrappy and with 20 minutes to go, Scotland took advantage of a mistake from Foley who tried to chip kick his way out of the 22 only for it to be charged down by Finn Russell and he found Tommy Seymour in the corner to reduce the margin to just one point.
But there would be more to come with Rob Simmons winning a Scottish throw into the lineout and Tevita Kuridrani found the line from close range and Foley’s conversion gave the Wallabies a little breathing space with lead of eight points.
Laidlaw once again landed a penalty and then as the rain started to pour down, Mark Bennett took an intercept from James Slipper in the Aussie 22 and ran untouched under the posts to give Laidlaw a simple conversion for a 34-32 lead with only five minutes to go.
But with just two minutes to go, the Wallabies were awarded a crucial penalty for Scotland being offside and up stepped Bernard Foley, just like in the 2014 Super Rugby final, and landed the winning penalty for a 35-34 win and will now take on Argentina next week.
The Details
Score & Scorers
[one_half last=”no”]AUSTRALIA 35
Tries: Ashley-Cooper, Mitchell 2, Hooper, Kuridrani
Conversions: Foley 2
Penalties: Foley 2
[/one_half]
[one_half last=”yes”]SCOTLAND 34
Tries: Horne, Seymour, Bennett
Conversions: Laidlaw 2
Penalties: Laidlaw 5
[/one_half]
Cards
42 mins – Maitland (Scotland) – Yellow
Crowd: 77,110
