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I like to go the test matches hours before kickoff to pick up the vibes and the gossip. So there I was around 6pm at Telstra Stadium, struck by the number of Welsh supporters mingling in front of the gates. They seemed to be in good spirits, despite the comments from so-called experts like myself that the Wallabies were on a ‘roadkill’ expedition against Wales.
Supporters tend to be supportive but I was further surprised in the media room to hear Welsh journalists expressing a quiet confidence that their team was going to do well. ‘We have more caps in our side,’ one of them told a gaggle of journalists, ‘than the Wallabies’. I hesitated to point out that once George Gregan came on to the field, the Wallabies would go about 80 caps ahead of their opponents. Then a veteran broadcaster surprised me by telling me: ‘I think Wales will give us a touch-up tonight’.
At 7.25 on a pleasantly sharp evening Wales came out on the field, all the players in their playing kit. They lined up for a photo. This ritual used to be part of the foreplay before tests but has disappeared with the modern system of track-suited players going through their drills until a few minutes before play. I wrote in my notebook: ‘Do Wales sense some history in the making tonight? The last time Wales defeated Australia in Australia was in 1969. This third string Welsh side surely won’t be the side to defeat the hoodoo?’
Just before the kick-off I made the point to several other journalists that the only hope Wales had of staying in the match, they had no hope of winning it (I believed), was for the side to stop the play from fracturing. This meant kicking for touch, not down field, when play had slowed down or attacks were clearly getting nowhere. My thought was that the superior skills and pace of the Wallabies would expose the smaller and more ponderous Welsh players if the game was an expansive one.
There was a heart-rending singing of the Welsh national anthem, ‘Land Of My Fathers,’ one of the great moments in rugby, along with the NZ haka which inspired the Welsh anthem in 1905. A lacklustre rendition of ‘Advance Australia Fair’ prompted me to write in my notebook: ‘Wales, as usual, has won the singing. Wales 10 – Australia 0.’
Wales fumbles the kickoff. My notebook: ‘Wails, wails.’ But minutes later a laboured Wallaby backline movement breaks down and Wales are away kicking and chasing and sensationally a try is scored near the posts. 7 – 0.
Another laboured Wallaby backline movement, another Wales breakout from inside their 22 and another try. 14 – 0. My notebook: ‘The Wallabies look leaden-footed, as if Matt Williams is the coach. Lachlan Turner would have stopped both these runaways easily. But no pace on the field today.’
Notebook again: ‘The Welsh supporters are beginning to believe that the impossible victory is possible. Chants of “Wales! Wales!” and then booing as Stirling Mortlock lines up for a penalty shot.’
Notebook: ’20 minutes of play gone. Wales 17 – Australia 0. Wales playing badly. 83 per cent of possession to the Wallabies. It must only be a matter of time before they start piling on the points.’
Half-time: Wales 17 – Australia 12. As the players trudged back to their dressing rooms, I make the fearless prediction to one of the journalists: ‘The Wallabies will get to 40 points in the second half and Wales will get another penalty if they’re lucky. It’ll be like last night with Australia A and Tonga.’
James Hook kicks a penalty for Wales, 20 – 12. My Notebook: ‘When will the floodgates open for the Wallabies?’
Matt Dunning is replaced by Benn Robinson, Phil Waugh is replaced by George Smith, and there is an immediate lift in the quality of the Wallabies play. Notebook: ‘Smith’s impact makes a nonsense of the nonsensical policy of appointing Waugh and Mortlock joint-captains of the test squad.’
George Gregan comes on and the crowd roars with fervent appreciation. It may occur to the 40,820 spectators that this is Gregan’s last appearance for the Wallabies at Telstra Stadium.
Australia 22 – Wales 20.
James Hook misses a penalty right in front of the posts. He later claims cramp got to him but he took an inordinately long time preparing for the kick (always a bad sign) and then seemed to signal with a hand wave to the booing crowd behind the posts (another bad sign).
Hook redeems himself with a well-taken dropped goal after a dreadful mistake inside his 22 (dropping the ball just as he was about to kick it out) by Mark Gerrard. Wales 23 – Australia 22. As Hook positioned himself for the drop-goal I heard myself exclaiming, as if I were the commentator: ‘There he is, he’s in the pocket …’
3 minutes and 31 seconds to play from the kick-off. Wales make a fundamental mistake of not retaining the ball in slow-motion, clock-eating one-off drives. The ball is kicked (stupidly) deep to Julian Huxley, with no chasers. Notebook: ‘Why oh why didn’t they take a long range drop kick or just boot the ball out and force a Wallaby re-start?’ Huxley kicks long and deep back. The replacement halfback Gareth Cooper regathers inside his 22. Instead of taking the tackle and setting up a maul, he kicks for touch. The ball slides off his boot and the Wallabies have a lineout just outside the Wales 22. Notebook: ‘The Wallabies are going to get out of jail.’
At least one of my predictions came right. Once Daniel Vickerman won the lineout it was obvious that a try was on. Wales was out on its feet, like a fighter who had been belted for 15 rounds.
And now the ball is moving across the field with the Wallabies only 15 m out and with several players unmarked. A long pass to Vickerman which is almost intercepted by a leg-weary Welsh player. Stephen Hoiles has it and he is across the line for a try. The stadium explodes with a triumphant roaring sound.
On the train coming back to Central Station, I spotted a couple in Welsh colours. The man was stoical but his wife was morose and almost in tears. ‘You know,’ she told me in that lilting Welsh accent, ‘my mother back in Cardiff will be shattered. She’s 85 you know, and she’ll be shattered now’.
But not as shattered as Wallaby supporters would have been — with calls for the head of John Connolly — if Wales had won the impossible victory.