When a losing run is as long as this, any old win will do. Wales, after 13 consecutive defeats against Australia, finally managed to beat them. That the score was 9-6, a throwback to rugby union’s bad old days, did not matter a jot to a raucous crowd.
Nor should it, but to the neutral this made for desperate viewing. A match that was meandering to a slow death at 3-3 was salvaged by three penalties in the last quarter of an hour, as well as a touch of controversy when Samu Kerevi’s attempted charge-down of Leigh Halfpenny’s clearance was adjudged OK, despite the dreaded contact with the head. Moreover, Matt Toomua kicked Australia level at the end of the same passage, only for Dan Biggar to seal the win with two minutes to go.
All the same, 9-6. Those numbers sent everyone scurrying to the record books. We were transported back to the 1980s, the last time Wales won with as few points (1981, 9-8 against Ireland) or won in as low-scoring a game (1988, 11-3 against England). The professional era has not seen anything like this. But for those last 10 minutes, we might have been back in the 19th century, 3-3 entering the final quarter.
Thank the Great Redeemer, then, for some plot lines in the dying minutes. Halfpenny had just buried what would have been hideous torture by kicking Wales into a 6-3 lead with 10 minutes to go. In the first half he had missed two, repeat two, sitters by his standards, the second a blindfolded one. So when he was granted another shot from more or less the same spot, he was quick to step up and relieved to kick straight.
England denied by All Blacks and late decision in Twickenham thriller
Which leads us to another plot line of incompetence. It has become fashionable in the modern game to turn down shots at goal in favour of the corner. Australia took this fashion to an absurd extreme, turning down easy shots twice in the second half and making a mess of the subsequent lineouts.
So Halfpenny’s success in the 68th minute, to establish a 6-3 lead for Wales, should not be taken for granted. Then came the controversy. Halfpenny cleared for touch, and Kerevi launched himself into an attempt to charge the ball down. Once airborne he could not prevent himself colliding with Halfpenny’s head, but should he have launched himself in the first place? Rugby can feel another furious debate coming on.
Either way, pandemonium in the stadium, all the more so when the referee waved play on, all the more again when he awarded the burrowing David Pocock his umpteenth penalty of the day. Only then, from the hardest position of all, did Australia summon a kicker, and Toomua landed it – 6-6.
It is difficult to know who should have been more disappointed with the match up to that point. Halfpenny held his head in his hands with that miss at the end of the first half, from pretty much in front on the 22. That just does not happen to him – or at least it never used to.
But Australia might have felt they too should have turned round in front. No one dominated possession or territory, but the slickest moves were theirs. Kerevi had a tilt at the line in the first half; Sefa Naivalu sparked another passage. But we are clutching at straws. Neither line was threatened.
It became, as ever, a battle of the breakdown, Justin Tipuric and Pocock vying with each other, but both offences for the teams’ respective three points of the first half were for a No 6 straying offside. That is about as uninspiring as points-scoring gets.
On it went into the second half – only without the points-scoring for most of it. Tatafu Polota-Nau supplied a plot twist vaguely worthy of the name, when he came in at the side to concede Halfpenny’s redemptive penalty. That set the scene for the relative drama of the last 10 minutes of the match.
After Halfpenny and Toomua had exchanged their penalties, Ned Hanigan failed to roll away from a tackle with five minutes to go, and Biggar stepped up to put Wales – and the rest of us – out of their misery.
Nevertheless, that is now seven wins in a row for the world’s No 3 team. The timing of next year’s World Cup is starting to look propitious.