Australia defended grimly to weather a fierce second-half assault and prevail over Wales in Brisbane in the first match of their three-Test series.
Alex Cuthbert crossed for a try and Leigh Halfpenny kicked 14 points as the Six Nations champions threatened to pull off an historic win. But it was not enough to recover from early scores by Rob Higginbotham and Will Genia before Pat McCabe crossed to snuff out the Welsh recovery.
Tri Nations holders Australia recovered from the defeat to Scotland to end Wales' run of six wins in a row and leave caretaker coach Rob Howley facing an uphill task for the rest of the series.
Australia took an early grip on the game when Berrick Barnes opened the scoring in the ninth minute after Wales prop Adam Jones was penalised and the Wallaby fly-half kicked the resulting penalty.
Cuthbert stopped Australia scoring with a crucial tackle, but just moments later Higginbotham crashed over for his first Wallabies Test try. Barnes converted.
Halfpenny finally got Wales off the mark on 23 minutes, but the Six Nations champions were struggling to find any momentum and Genia needed less than a minute of the second half to grab the Wallabies' second try.
Wales attempted to shake off the early blow with a second penalty for Halfpenny.
Barnes responded with a 50th-minute drop goal, but Halfpenny again nudged Wales closer with a third penalty, then Cuthbert finished a Wales move in style for his fourth Test try. Halfpenny converted and added an excellent penalty from wide to cut the deficit to 20-19 on 63 minutes.
Wales were eyeing a remarkable turnaround, but Australia showed their clinical edge when they needed it most. Genia was again the creator, picking his pass to McCabe who went over on 67 minutes.
Barnes converted and Australia were once again eight points ahead. Twice Cuthbert threatened to break clear for a second try that Wales desperately needed, but was denied as Australia held out for victory.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article