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Australia came away 15-6 winners over Wales in a stirring encounter at Twickenham on Saturday. Though neither side managed to cross the line, there was no shortage of attacking endeavour, with a magnificent defensive stand by the Wallabies in the second half proving the defining period of the game.
Wales stormed out of the gates, tearing into the Australian line and nearly scoring in the corner at the two minute mark. Gareth Anscombe’s grubber got in behind the defense and George North picked up the loose ball and crossed only to be held up by a terrific tackle by Bernard Foley. The opening salvo continued but Wales could not get clean though, eventually settling for a Dan Biggar penalty to hand them the first points of the match.
A 20-minute stalemate followed, broken at long last by two Foley penalty goals in quick succession. Biggar replied to even things up, but Foley struck again moments later to drag the Wallabies back into the lead as they headed into the change rooms.
It was Foley again who started the second half well for Australia, stretching the lead to six points, but for the next twenty minutes it was all Wales. With the Wallabies on the back foot Will Genia was sent to the bin for a professional foul, and soon after was joined by Dean Mumm after a lineout indiscretion.
Two men in the bin and commanding field position seemed to be a desperate situation for Australia, but somehow they survived the barrage of red jerseys with a remarkable display of courage and determined defense. For some 10 minutes Wales hammered away only to be repelled at every turn, held up over the line, and eventually turned over by Kurtley Beale after a smashing tackle from Adam Ashley-Cooper.
Somehow it seemed that it was Wales who had been exhausted by the challenge, and when Foley knocked over his fifth penalty with seven minutes to play, there was no coming back. It is a massive statement of intent from the Wallabies, who now move on to face Scotland at Twickenham on Sunday. Wales will have to try their luck in the same stadium against the Springboks on Saturday.
AUSTRALIA 15
Pens – B. Foley 5 (25, 31, 37, 51, 73)
Yellow cards – W. Genia (57), D. Mumm (60)
WALES 6
Pens – D. Biggar 2 (5, 34)
Yellow cards – A. Cuthbert (77)
AUSTRALIA
1 S. Sio (J. Slipper 62) 2 S. Moore (capt.) (T. Polota-Nau 66) 3 S. Kepu (G. Holmes 55) 4 K. Douglas 5 D. Mumm 6 S. Fardy 7 S. McMahon (B. McCalman 48) 8 D. Pocock (R. Simmons 60) 9 W. Genia (N. Phipps 67) 10 B. Foley 11 D. Mitchell (K. Beale 66) 12 M. Giteau (M. To’omua 66) 13 T. Kuridrani 14 A. Ashley-Cooper 15 I. Folau
WALES
1 P. James (A. Jarvis 72) 2 S. Baldwin (K. Owens 72) 3 S. Lee (T. Francis 53) 4 L. Charteris 5 A. Jones 6 S. Warburton (capt.) 7 J. Tipuric (R. Moriarty 73) 8 T. Faletau 9 G. Davies 10 D. Biggar (R. Priestland 74) 11 Li. Williams (J. Hook 74) 12 J. Roberts (Ll. Williams) 13 G. North 14 A. Cuthbert 15 G. Anscombe
