Australia’s Len Ikitau scores a try during a match between Wales and Australia in Cardiff
Wales 20, Australia 52
Australia condemned Wales to the worst losing run in its 143-year rugby history after a record 52-20 win under the Principality Stadium roof yesterday [Macau time].
Wales lost an unprecedented 11th consecutive test, dating to the Rugby World Cup quarterfinals 13 months ago.
The Wallabies are responsible for three of those defeats after July wins in Sydney and Melbourne. Yesterday, they scored their most points against Wales in Cardiff — they’d never passed 39 — and their most against Wales in 28 years.
Coming off the stunner against England, the Wallabies also are perfect halfway through their 40th anniversary grand slam tour, with Scotland and Ireland to come.
The victory by eight tries to two saw Australia zoom to 19-0, a Wales fightback by halftime, then Australia retake control while its center Samu Kerevi was off the field for a 20-minute red card in his 50th test.
Matt Faessler became the first Australia hooker to score a hat trick of tries, and man-of-the-match fullback Tom Wright matched his three in the final minute. Noah Lolesio converted six.
“That was an awesome 80-minute performance,” Wright told broadcaster TNT Sports. “Those are games you like to be a part of.”
Kerevi red card
The Wallabies were too clever and confident for a younger, rebuilding Wales. Bigger too. The Wallabies constantly got over the gain-line and were clinical.
After Kerevi’s illegal head contact on Jac Morgan reduced Australia to 14 men, Wales, trailing 19-13, thought it had a sniff. But the Wallabies pack moved them out of sight on the scoreboard by engineering two converted tries in 10 minutes for Faessler. His hat trick was all maul tries.
Wales tried to regain the initiative by changing the front row, but it also replaced its best player, wing Tom Rogers.
And before Australia returned to 15 when Kerevi was replaced by rookie sensation Joseph Su’uali’i, Wright scored a 70-meter intercept try after teammate Rob Valetini stopped Christ Tshiunza dead.
“That performance hurts,” Wales coach Warren Gatland said. “We started off not great. We conceded some points. We got back into it. (Conceding) 21 points with a man advantage, it’s not often that happens.
“You can get beaten by a better team, but we’ve probably let ourselves down when we needed to keep a cool head. It’s using that experience to review as honestly as we can so we learn from it.”
Gatland keen to fight on
Asked about his future, Wales’ most successful coach said he wanted to carry on.
“There’s so much negativity around the game. Whatever the best decision is, I would support. If that means (firing) me, I’m comfortable with that,” Gatland said. “I’m only human so I ask myself if it’s the right thing to do. But I’m happy doing it.”
The game petered out with more tries to Wright and Len Ikitau, interrupted by a score for Wales’ Ben Thomas.
It doesn’t get any easier for Wales. World champion South Africa comes to town next weekend.
Even knowing there was more unwanted history at stake, Wales couldn’t have started much worse. MDT/AP
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