PR012 LEAGUE: Wales 18 Australia 24:WHEN IT comes to end-of-year reports, public perception makes all the difference. Wales and the departing Shane Williams were cheered off on Saturday having lost a game that underlined some old frailties.
It was also their third successive loss at Test level inside two months and confirmed their end-of-year position just above Tonga in the IRB world rankings. England, by comparison, won more Tests and suffered two fewer defeats than Wales in 2011 and were derided as a shambles. Statistics, clearly, do not always tell the entire truth.
As far as every Welsh supporter is concerned, Williams included, better days are right around the corner. “I have no doubt this Welsh squad can be one of the best teams in the world,” predicted Wales’s record try-scorer, having finally composed himself following his emotional farewell.
“There’s a great number of excellent individuals coming through. The confidence in these young guys is unbelievable. I honestly believe they’re capable of winning things . . . they’re the most mentally tough group I’ve worked with.”
It will certainly require more consistency than they displayed on Saturday, when their scrum stuttered and the attacking verve that has won them so many new friends was barely evident until the final quarter. Even before Leigh Halfpenny was sin-binned after 50 minutes for obstructing James O’Connor as he sought to gather Barnes’s deft chip, Wales were on the back foot. The rat-a-tat of Wallaby tries showed precisely the ruthlessness that Warren Gatland is still trying to instil in his own side.
After Will Genia had sneaked over within seconds of Halfpenny’s exit and Lachie Turner had scored out wide on the left, the defining moment came when Berrick Barnes materialised on Radike Samo’s shoulder to settle the outcome.
It was the intelligence of Barnes’s supporting run that stood out as much as the neat pop pass; when Jamie Roberts is shut down and their forwards are not getting them across the gain line either, Wales need to find similar ways to make things happen.
That task will hardly be simplified by Williams’s retirement from the highest level. Having already showed his defensive worth by causing a possible Turner try to be ruled out by the television match official, he popped up in the final seconds to score the farewell try the occasion demanded.
Guardian Service
WALES:Halfpenny; North (Cuthbert 69), Scott Williams, Roberts, Shane Williams; Priestland, (Biggar, 74), L Williams (Knoyle 74); Jenkins, Bennett (Rees 59), Andrews (Bevington 59), Davies, Evans (Tipuric 65), Lydiate, Warburton (capt), Faletau.
AUSTRALIA: Ashley-Cooper (Tapuai 77); Turner, Fainga'a, Barnes, Ioane; O'Connor, Genia; Slipper, Polota-Nau (Moore 52), Ma'afu (Alexander 52), Horwill (capt), Simmons (Sharpe 67), Higginbotham, Pocock (Samo half-time), McCalman.
RefereeJ Kaplan (South Africa).
