Their 11th victory in a row over Wales saw Australia top Pool A and show the extent of their all-round game following last week’s more free-flowing 33-13 win over England.
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The Australian’s defence with two men down, showed why they are the strongest contenders for this year’s cup.
The second half began in the same fashion as the first, with the intensity of the game rising all the time with only Australia able to add three points from the boot of Bernard Foley.
“We did it 12 months ago…we’ve had a couple of losses too, including one where we were leading by 17 points”.
In the opening clash of the weekend, Wales take on South Africa at Twickenham.
It would take a mighty effort from another player in the knock-out stages to claw away the player of the tournament award from the Wallaby number eight.
Wales captain Sam Warburton paid tribute to the fortress put along the Wallaby touchline. “You’ve got to give Australia credit for a few heroic defense”. I could not have asked for more of my players.
“I thought we were extremely close”.
The Wallabies were reduced to 13 men after Will Genia and Dean Mumm were sin binned in the 57th and 60th minutes.
Australia held off a desperate Welsh side despite being two men down in the Rugby World Cup to take a 15-6 win on Saturday and finish atop Group A. They lost Michael Hooper to a one match suspension but remained tenacious.
Australia’s attacking threat was largely negated by Wales’s use of the smother tackle, which coach Warren Gatland conceded later was a tactic his side had made a decision to employ before the match. “They threw their bodies on the line”.
Despite relentless Welsh pressure on the line and wave after wave of crash-ball charges, Australia repelled every assault and twice managed to hold the ball up when Wales did cross the line.
Foley and Biggar then exchanged penalties, with Wales competing fiercely at the breakdown, before the Australian nudged his side in front.
Australia’s only injury issue is No. 8 David Pocock who limped off in the second half.
Lock Kane Douglas was in the thick of Australia’s defensive rearguard as Wales found themselves repeatedly denied.
Wales came again and it needed a fine tackle by Foley on North to snuff out a try.
“SA have gone back to the tried-and-tested”, he said. The squad was going forward when Davies inexplicably picked up the ball and ran the blindside only to be smothered by Wallabies replacement flanker Ben McCalman. “When you look back, whenever we have a big win our defence has usually been a massive part of that”.
At another Welsh five-meter scrum, Australia collapsed, giving away another penalty, but no penalty try.
Wales wing Alex Cuthbert was yellow-carded for a deliberate knock-on only for Foley, surprisingly, to miss the ensuing penalty chance.
Rugby World Cup folklore is often carved out on the back of moments of creative genius or dazzling attack.
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“It is tougher”, he said. “It’s going to be a huge match, but our objective at the start of the tournament was to come out of the pool, and we’ve done that and we need to be positive”.
