BY: BRET HARRIS From: The Australian June 23, 2012
A A BERRICK Barnes penalty five minutes from time gave the Wallabies a 20-19 win for a clean sweep in the three-Test series against Wales.
In a brilliant Sydney afternoon the heartache continued for the Welsh who were attempting to record their first victory on Australian soil in 43 years.
After the Wallabies won the first two Tests 27-19 in Brisbane and 25-23 in Melbourne, there was only 11 points between the two teams over the course of the series, the closeness of the contests at odds with the fact the Australia has now won seven in a row against the Welsh.
Both teams scored a try apiece to Wallabies outside centre Rob Horne and Wales number eight Ryan Jones, while Australian five-eighth Berrick Barnes and Welsh fullback Leigh Halfpenny engaged in a goal-kicking duel at Allianz Stadium.
Barnes, who received the man of the match award for the second week in a row, and Halfpenny both kicked five goals from six attempts. The difference was Barnes landed five penalty goals, while Halfpenny knocked over four penalty goals and a conversion.
With fullback Kurtley Beale back in the team, the Wallabies attempted to play more expansively than they did in the second Test in Melbourne last Saturday, but they were thwarted by a high error rate in the attacking zone and Wales’ dismantling of their set-pieces.
The high number of penalties (14-10 to the Wallabies) handed out by South African referee Craig Joubert prompted caretaker Welsh coach Rob Howley to later quip that he thought there were three referees on the field.
It interrupted the flow of the game as did the fiercely contested battle at the breakdown.
Wales captain Sam Warburton left the field in the 28th minute with concussion after receiving an accidental knee to the head from Wallabies inside centre Pat McCabe, who went to the blood bin six minutes later with a broken nose and did not return for the second half.
“In every instance, which is so much the case in Test match rugby these days, both sides are capable of winning,” Wallabies coach Robbie Deans said.
“But credit to those blokes, they got up and showed a lot of composure at the end. A little bit impatient early, which possibly reflected the circumstance with the series already resolved.
“But they showed good discipline because there was a lot that was happening off the ball and they didn’t react. I give them credit for that.
“And when you consider how dysfunctional our set-piece was it was a very good effort to win the game.”
The Wallabies led 12-9 at half-time after a tryless first 40 minutes with all of the points coming from the boots of Barnes and Halfpenny.
Even though they enjoyed 60 per cent of the possession in the first half the Wallabies never really looked like scoring a try, mainly because of poor ball-security.
Every time the Wallabies got into the attacking zone they either dropped the ball or turned it over.
Barnes opened the scoring with a penalty goal in the third minute after Welsh prop Adam Jones was caught offside.
Halfpenny levelled the score with a penalty goal in the seventh minute after Wallabies second rower Nathan Sharpe did not roll away in a tackle.
Barnes put the Wallabies ahead 6-3 with a penalty goal in the ninth minute after the Australians pressured Wales into not releasing the ball in the tackle following the kick-off.
Halfpenny evened things up again with a penalty goal from 50 metres in the 13th minute after Wallabies loosehead prop Benn Robinson collapsed a scrum.
Barnes regained the lead with a penalty goal in the 16th minute after Welsh loosehead prop Gethin Jenkins did not roll away from a tackle, while Halfpenny equalised after the Wallabies committed the same offence eight minutes later.
But Barnes gave the Wallabies a three-point lead at the break with another penalty goal in the 38th minute after Welsh halfback Mike Phillips was caught offside.
Halfpenny missed penalty goal from 50 metres in the 53rd minute, breaking a consecutive run of 15 successful shots.
Ryan Jones, who had taken over the captaincy from Warburton, scored the first try of the game in the 61st minute.
Wales had a five metre scrum after Wallabies winger Digby Ioane took the ball over the try-line and was tackled in goal. The Welsh received two free kicks from scrummaging infringements before being awarded a penalty for replacement prop Ben Alexander collapsing.
Such was their dominance at scrum-time, the Welsh opted for yet another scrum and they shifted the ball back towards the middle of the field with Phillips and winger Alex Cuthbert taking it forward before Jones crashed over in the tackle of Wallabies captain David Pocock.
But the Wallabies struck back three minutes late with a try to Horne after Barnes and Beale combined to send him over in the right hand corner.
It looked as if Horne may have lost control of the ball, but the Television Match Official ruled he grounded it.
Barnes missed the attempt at conversion from the sideline, leaving the Wallabies clinging to a 17-16 lead.
Halfpenny put Wales back in front 19-17 with a penalty goal in the 70th minute after Robinson was judged collapsed a scrum, but Barnes booted the match-winner four minutes later after the Welsh were caught offside yet again.
“Can we play them next week please,” Wales caretaker coach Rob Howley said in reference to the Welsh progressively narrowing the gap during the series.
“They came into this game and everyone questioned where the mentality would be,” Howley said. “I thought they were outstanding.
“The game itself, I thought we played some good rugby, we defended well, when those moments present themselves to go into the lead and then after that we weren’t composed enough and when you are playing against Australia you don’t get away with those moments.
“We are a pretty honest bunch of coaches. It’s three-nil. It’s a whitewash. We are not hiding away from that. There’s a lot of good ingredients and I’m proud of the effort. Today was disappointing, the last 10 minutes.
“We had gone into the lead and we didn’t take the opportunity when it arose whether it was to kick the ball out or to take the scrum. A lot of things happened in the last 10 minutes, but we have to learn from that.
“International rugby is a game of fine lines. There were moments we could have controlled better.”
Welsh defence coach Shaun Edwards was critical of the number of penalties Wales conceded for being off-side, especially as they placed such a big emphasis on line-speed in defence.
AUSTRALIA 20 (Rob Horne try Berrick Barnes 5 pens) WALES 19 (Ryan Jones try Leigh Halfpenny con 4 pens) at Allianz Stadium. Referee: Craig Joubert. Crowd: 42,889
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