RWC 2015 Australia vs Wales match report: Heroic defensive display sees Wallabies top Pool A

Australia 15 Wales 6

Wales' George North is tackled by Israel Folau and Tevita Kuridrani (Getty Images)

The Wallabies have been lording it over Wales since time immemorial: the past 11 meetings between the countries have gone the green-and-gold way, while the Red Dragons have won just twice in 26 attempts stretching all the way back to the end of the Thatcher era. But this particular victory will mean the world to Australia, and possibly more. It could propel them all the way to a third World Cup triumph.

Somehow – and it will take us a very long time to work out exactly how they did it, given that they were down to 13 men at the tipping point of a compelling contest – these deeply resourceful and resilient Australians survived the mother and father of a second-half pummelling to win the so-called “pool of death” and set up a quarter-final with Scotland next weekend.

Wales? They must drag their broken bodies back to Twickenham for a meeting with South Africa. There are no prizes for guessing who came out of yesterday’s game feeling good about life.

Wales will kick themselves black and blue for failing to capitalise on their numerical advantage, but there was little sign of the composure that defined their unexpected win over England a fortnight previously. They lit plenty of fires in the physical sense, but their minds overheated at the same time. From this distance, the Springboks must look terribly forbidding.

Warren Gatland, the Wales coach, changed his front-row configuration for this game, recalling Paul James and Samson Lee as his starting props as a means of neutralising a Wallaby unit suddenly perceived as semi-decent following their set-piece successes against England seven days earlier. And when the first scrum arrived, both sides treated it as something out of the cave: a real “man test”, from which the Welsh emerged as the more masculine.

Gareth Davies, the sparky little No 9 from Carmarthen, set sail down the short side as a result, and when Gareth Anscombe, new to the World Cup mix at full-back, slid an intelligent kick behind the remnants of the Australian defensive line and put Tevita Kuridrani in a sea of strife, George North went within an ounce of downward pressure of claiming an early try. Wales still had an attacking set-piece in their favour, however, and when Davies threatened again, an offside call gave Dan Biggar the chance to open the scoring with a penalty.

And there the numbers stayed until the second quarter, when Biggar’s opposite number, Bernard Foley, nailed an awkward shot from a position wide on the right. This too was the result of a scrummaging triumph - one of the Australian variety on this occasion. There was little rhyme or reason to proceedings at close-quarters: indeed, events were tending to legitimise the view of Michael Cheika, the Wallaby boss, who has taken to describing the set-piece as the “most humbling part of the game, because even if you get one right, the next one can leave you standing on your head with your pants pulled down”.

The final 15 minutes or so of the half had a claustrophobic air: Foley gave the Wallabies the lead for the first time when Liam Williams ruined some alert defensive work from the impressive Justin Tipuric by going off his feet at a ruck; Biggar responded in kind when Stephen Moore, the Australian captain, decided to play silly devils by refusing to relinquish the ball after a penalty call against him, thereby putting the Welshman in range of the sticks. The only thing splitting the combatants at the interval was a third successful kick from Foley, who punished Toby Faletau for toe-poking the ball out of Will Genia’s hands as the scrum-half shaped to move the ball away from a breakdown situation.

Given the tourniquet-tight situation, Wales could not contemplate the Wallabies logging the first score after the break. Unfortunately for Gatland’s side, this unwanted event duly came to pass when Faletau, hugely influential but just a little reckless, was caught performing a “neck roll” tackle on Ben McCalman. Instead of the Welsh benefiting from a brilliant piece of ball-stealing from their skipper Sam Waburton, they had to watch Foley hit the spot once again.

Six points adrift on the cusp of the final quarter, it was all or nothing for Warburton and company now – and how they threw themselves at the challenge. They were given a lift when Genia was packed off to the cooler for tackling Davies too quickly on a top-and-go penalty attack and thus compromised, the Wallabies committed all manner of indiscretions and illegalities in an attempt to shore up their defence.

Alun Wyn Jones went within inches of a try as the goal-line assault developed into a full-scale siege; so too did Davies, who could hardly have given more of himself. Faletau went closest of all, losing control of the ball on the line. Even then, a Welsh try seemed inevitable – not least because Dean Mumm, the Wallaby lock, joined Genia in the bin after being spotted scragging Jones in the air at a close-range line-out.

But the Australians know how to deal with adversity: with their small playing numbers and lack of a domestic structure worthy of the name, they have been doing it all their rugby lives. Adam Ashley-Cooper, the wing with 100-plus caps in his kitbag, pulled off one of the best tackles of his long career to stop Biggar in full flight with an overlap going left, and as a consequence, the siege was lifted.

And by way of rubbing it in, the Wallabies ripped upfield almost immediately, Israel Folau and the excellent Foley stepping their way deep into the red-shirted red zone – an attack that caught Wales in significant strife on the offside front and presented the outside-half with his fifth and conclusive penalty.