Match winner: Berrick Barnes
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For the second time in as many weeks Australia needed a late penalty to edge past Wales, winning 20-19 in an engrossing clash in Sydney.
Berrick Barnes landed a penalty five minutes from full-time to break Welsh hearts after yet another spirited display from the visitors.
The result leaves Wales winless against the Wallabies on Australia soil since 1969.
When the dust settles, the Welsh will have some long analysis to do, both on themselves and on Craig Joubert, who had a big influence on the game. He attempted to lay down the law as strictly as possible, but ended up breaking the rhythm and causing frustration a little too much, while also failing to deal with a lot of unwillingness to scrum properly from both sides. Australia responded slightly better overall but both teams looked scared to attempt things at times, too desperate at others.
They'll also reflect on the bounce of the ball which took James Hook's long hack downfield into touch milliseconds before the chasing Hook, 10 metres ahead of his nearest opponent arrived to gather it. Sometimes you just can't buy a break.
But there's little point in the Welsh screaming at Joubert or Lady Luck. They could also look to the number of restarts they failed to deal with and the two clear penalties in the 73rd and 74th minutes, of which first cost them good attacking position and the second the winning three points.
There was nothing to choose between the teams at half time in rugby terms but Barnes' fourth penalty just before the interval gave Australia a 12-9 lead - the four penalty to three scoreline an indication both of the broken rhythm of the game and the incessant stream of penalties. The second half was better as the teams tired and the game broke up naturally.
It took 61 minutes for the first try to be scored, but when Ryan Jones crashed over under the posts on a pick-and-go after Alex Cuthbert's run Wales took the lead for the first time and were good value for it. More precise on attack and threatening with ball in hand, the scrum was beginning to turn the screw as well.
The try drew an immediate response though - again from one of those spilled restarts - and the defence, panicked, folded in and left Rob Horne oodles of space outside. Even then, Horne almost butchered it, ending up controlling the ball between forearm and leg as he touched down. the TMO deemed that enough downward pressure and Australia had the lead back.
Leigh Halfpenny's fourth penalty - his second from 50 metres - with ten minutes left on the clock put the Six Nations champions back in front to set up a grandstand finish.
Barnes held his nerve, however, to split the uprights in the 75th minute to give Australia a one-point win and a 3-0 series clean sweep.
Man of the match: Try-scorer Ryan Jones and Jonathan Davies had strong games for the Welsh. A mention too for Barnes, who was near faultless from the kicking tee and landed the winning points with a cool swing of the leg. But we'll go for Wallaby skipper David Pocock who was a constant thorn in the side of the Welshman at the breakdown.
Moment of the match: The TMO made big call when he awarded Rob Horne's try. At first glance it looked like the centre lost control in act of going over. It would have ben extremely harsh to deny the try and, in the end, it turned out be a game-changing decision...
Villain of the match: No nasty stuff to report...
The scorers:
For Australia:
Try: Horne
Pens: Barnes 5
For Wales:
Try: R. Jones
Con: Halfpenny
Pens: Halfpenny 4
Australia: 15 Kurtley Beale, 14 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 13 Rob Horne, 12 Pat McCabe, 11 Digby Ioane, 10 Berrick Barnes, 9 Will Genia, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 David Pocock (c), 6 Scott Higginbotham, 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 Sitaleki Timani, 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Tatafu Polota Nau, 1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements: 16 Stephen Moore, 17 Ben Alexander, 18 Rob Simmons, 19 Dave Dennis, 20 Michael Hooper, 21 Nic White, 22 Anthony Fainga'a.
Wales: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Jonathan Davies, 12 Ashley Beck, 11 George North, 10 Rhys Priestland, 9 Mike Phillips, 8 Ryan Jones, 7 Sam Warburton (c), 6 Dan Lydiate, 5 Alun Wyn Jones, 4 Bradley Davies, 3 Adam Jones, 2 Matthew Rees, 1 Gethin Jenkins.
Replacements: 16 Ken Owens, 17 Paul James, 18 Luke Charteris, 19 Justin Tipuric, 20 Rhys Webb, 21 James Hook, 22 Scott Williams.
Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Jaco Peyper (South Africa), Jonathon White (New Zealand)
Television match official: Vinny Munro (New Zealand)
Comments
jontheref says...
new_j4A
Thanks for the link, it is a resource I will use.
Nigel Owens does something similar up here.
Look at ref 412, CJ., Q1.
I know in law he is correct, but we see it in most test matches, and it is play on.
I stress this is something all (or the vast majority of test refs) refs allow.
Just off before I get ping-ed for spending too much time on the computer!
:-)
Posted 15:48 26th June 2012
new_j4a says...
@jose_jones, as a matter of fact "ping" is a word and has two senses. In addition, it is growing in meaning towards common use as it has recently been used here i.e. to send a message to a player through the use of some penalty. Good luck with your Canute-like endeavor. Ping me if you succeed..
Posted 13:27 26th June 2012
new_j4a says...
@jontheref ...I call him CJ because I am lazy to type...I don't mean to imply any familiarity. My only exchange with him have been on www.sareferee.co.za (me asking for clarification).
Actually I would be interested in a rational discussion of his or any ref's performance. Some of those decisions invite discussion.
By the way, your favorite saffa ref is answering some interesting questions at http://www.sareferees.com/ref-replies/duty-ref-417--mark-lawrence/2829545/
Also some of the video clips of the AB v Ire game are good. http://www.sareferees.com/
Posted 10:26 26th June 2012
jose_jones says...
Can we all stop using the "ping",... it's not a word,.. it's just a reporter trying to introduce his own bit of vocabulary into the game.
Posted 10:06 26th June 2012
jontheref says...
new_j4A
You are very defensive of Joubert, or CJ as you call him.
I have made no comments about him, as all it seems to do is inflame one side or other of the argument!
Being magnanimous, Wales did shoot themselves in the foot many times, so I will leave the officials out of it.
Let others have their opinions, and you have yours, if CJ did have a good game, the silent majority will agree with you.
If he didn't, they won't!
:-)
Posted 08:24 26th June 2012
new_j4a says...
sigh....only trolls here this morning...and weak trolls at that....back to sleep
Posted 08:14 26th June 2012
anotherfarce says...
This article, talk about skipping over the facts the leaning tower of Pisa has less of a bias than this.
Who wrote the article no wonder you were to shy to put a tag to it.
Good to see that you heavily censor posts you find to embarrassing for your taste buds. Never mind as the moderator you can continue to put up posts under a false alias as you have already been doing. Keep up the good work with your articles (Great Stuff)
Posted 05:13 26th June 2012
anotherfarce says...
@new_j4a
"playing decent advantage and being
very careful to only ping players for off sides when they materially affect the play"
Wales were on the Australian line in the 1st half with good possession Australia infringed, but instead of putting his hand up for advantage he blew up for a penalty & killed the play stone dead, why would he do that?? absolutely criminal mate.
Posted 04:55 26th June 2012
jontheref says...
Ramge,
About the gold watch.
Derek did accept it, he admits so in his book.
He also says when he had it valued, it wasn't even gold!
Just gold coloured!
No need to worry about it being a bribe, it wasn't worth much!
In fact when his house was burgled, the robbers left it, and took other items in the same drawer!
Posted 21:09 25th June 2012
anotherfarce says...
@Ramage
Yeah right, now please get the glen20 & airwick out!!
Posted 07:52 25th June 2012
Ramage says...
First year of refereeing in Manawatu Schoolboys
5 years refereeing Junior grade rugby in CentralTaranaki.
8 Years refereeing junior and senior club rugby in South Taranaki
6 years refereeing senior rugby in CentralTaranaki.
7 years refereeing senior and junior rugby in Counties-Manukau.
On the Committee of Central and Southern Taranaki Referees, President of South Taranaki, Vice President of Taranaki referees a fairly long involvement in the refereeing fraternity for that loser that cant accept the truth. Even met your own Welsh referee Derek Bevan when in NZ. You know the one who had to decline the gold watch as his reward for the South African France semi final in RWC 1995.
Posted 06:06 25th June 2012
costa says...
ch-ch-ch-choke - hard to decide for the 'Choke of 2012'
nominees are Wales Choke (v Australia 2nd and 3rd tests), Ireland Choke (v NZ 2nd test), England Choke (v South Africa 3rd test).
Special mention of the 'other game', England Choke v Italy overnight.
PR can we have a poll to settle this debate.
And a column explaining the apparent inability of these teams to close-out games in 2012.
The (UK) national psyche, underachievers and proud of it?
Listen to the coaches you'd believe this.
Posted 05:25 25th June 2012
new_j4a says...
Test ** (2 asterisks works, 3 and 4 do not)
Posted 20:48 24th June 2012
new_j4a says...
@PR Ed....posting seems to work again. As far as I can tell I had to delete 2 strings of 4 asterisks to get it to work....strange?
Posted 20:45 24th June 2012
new_j4a says...
@celticspirit I'm neutral. In a sense JayStar is right when he says "I didn't think Craig Joubert had a good game." He didn't and neither did any of us. It was a really bad game with less than 10 minutes total of decent rugby and this usually came to an abrupt end with basic handling errors. Where JayStarr is wrong is when he says "that was the worst game I've seen *by him* for a while"
The problem wasn't CJ. It was the 2 teams. Neither deserved to win. Collectively they had a really bad day at the office and nothing sparked. There was no champagne rugby played. It would be an error to attribute the poor play to Joubert. In fact he tries to let it flow, playing decent advantage and being
very careful to only ping players for off sides when they materially affect the play. (There were periods where the Welsh were camped offside and several where Australia got away with the same but behind Joubert's back). As someone said (I think melkdave), CJ applied the Laws perfectly....this is what he is out there to do. It is the other 30 who are normally expected to produce the rugby. He is refereeing the game, not conducting an orchestra.
Posted 20:42 24th June 2012
new_j4a says...
@lacroix you have no idea what you are talking about. Joubert's performance at the RWC was endorsed by
the IRB and he was picked for the 6N, unlike people whose performance with the whistle was substandard.
You join anotherfart, jonesy, and a string of other stupid trolls who don't know enough about the game
to participate in a reasonable discussion and so mouth off with unfounded slander.
Posted 20:38 24th June 2012
new_j4a says...
@PR Ed...Is there something wrong with the site? I can't post from my PC but a test post seems to go through from Blackberry?
Posted 20:36 24th June 2012
new_j4a says...
Testing 123
Posted 20:28 24th June 2012
PontySurrey says...
I wonder if it might promote a better contest if the same referee is used in all 3 matches if this is the way these tours will be in the future? Even if the ref is bad he might at least be consistently bad and both teams should benefit.
Posted 15:14 24th June 2012
Trader2 says...
@anotherfarce no argument on the Baby Blacks being beaten by a better team, which puts the thumping the Blacks gave your boys in the semi into perspective really - thats right you are a long way behind SA and NZ.
Posted 14:58 24th June 2012