Another Wallabies Wales special. A match of early running rugby, end to end activity, then a second half of gritty keep you on the edge of your seat, ruin your excess cuticles stuff.
The Match
90 seconds in, Australia, after a good kick off and some poor refereeing give up possession and then Webb [the Welsh 9] sells an easy dummy to McMahon to go in untouched. (4th min)
Folau breaks his drought and scored off broken play. Australia with an attacking scrum get a knock on advantage. Lilo feeds Hooper who makes the half break and who better to feed than Izzy. (15th min)
AAC saves a try with a tackle, then a diving intercept to steal the pop pass. (17th min)
Folau diffuses a phase built attacking blitz inside our 22 and pinches the cut out ball to the winger. No one chased and he was in under the posts. When it rains it pours. (21st min)
Curthbert capitalises on a George North break. Looked as though Phipps had no support and was trying to milk a penalty and off the counter attack the welsh didn’t hold back. (26th min)
Slipper put his hand up for number 10, with a massive overlap, gave it to Kuridrani who busted two tackles and went in under the posts untouched. (29th min0
Foley saved us off a 5min defensive line, stole the long ball for our third intercept and just as important as the other two. (33rd min)
Alun Wyn Jones scored from close range after some welsh forward dominance to end the first half, but the footage was inconclusive. (41st min)
21 all at Half Time
Both the wallabies and the Welsh played a lot tighter around the ruck area.
Foley slotted a penalty in the 44th minute and then again a longer range one at the 58th minute.
Wales got a penalty try from a 5m scrum in the 66th minute and the conversion put them ahead by 1.
The wallabies rallied to set Foley up for a drop goal that didn’t look like missing in the 74th then made a tough call to go the points again with 2 minutes to play and only putting them up by 5. Foley slotted it again.
The wallabies did their usual will we lose it or not thing until North knocked on after some expansive play around the half way line.
33-28 Wallabies holding on at the final whistle.
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The Game Changer
In an extremely tight game, Hodgson made a key steal in the 76th minute that turned a position to where Wales could win with a three pointer to a position where we could wrap it up.
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The G&GR MOTM
Israel Folau kept us in the game and basically allowed us to be in a position to win. His first try was off good work in broken play from Lilo and Hooper. His 2nd try was all his doing, a great call and a 14 point switcheroo.
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Players to watch
Genia wasn’t stepping to pass at all when he came on and looked all the better for it.
North, Cuthbert and Hibbard look sharp again and I don’t like it that they’re in our pool next year.
McMahon needs to work on his consistency.
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The Details
Crowd: 55,004
Score & Scorers
[one_half last=”no”]Wales: 28
Tries: 4
Conversions: 4/4
Penalties: 0/0[/one_half]
[one_half last=”yes”]Wallabies: 33
Tries: 3
Conversions: 3/3
Penalties: 3/3
Drop Goals: 1/1[/one_half]
Cards & citings
None
