Serious injuries to props Matt Dunning and Sekope Kepu overshadowed an eye-catching debut from rising star James O’Connor as the Wallabies’ spring tour came to a bittersweet end.

Dunning snapped an Achilles tendon and NSW Waratahs teammate Kepu tore a pectoral muscle in the same scrum as the Wallabies scored a torrid 18-11 victory over the star-studded Barbarians in the first rugby match played at Wembley Stadium.

Both players are likely to miss the entire 2009 Super 14 season after being victims of Wembley’s loose turf, which seemed to give way all too easily under the combined weight of the two teams’ forward packs.

“It was obvious that that surface wasn’t conducive to scrums,” said Wallabies captain and man of the match George Smith.

“That’s why we went to uncontested scrums.”

Dunning, whose injury may even be career-threatening, and Kepu were both hurt in the same scrum early in the second half.

When Dunning slipped on the shifting surface, he brought the Australian front row down with him, resulting in Kepu’s arm ripping back and tearing his chest muscle.

Since the rebuilt stadium re-opened in 2007, the Wembley turf has been repeatedly criticised as unsuitable for its primary purpose of staging soccer matches.

Wallabies coach Robbie Deans said while the incident took the shine off his side’s brave win, he disagreed with the suggestion the match was meaningless and should not have been played after such an arduous five-Test tour.

“It’s the worst part of the game, injuries, and they’re pretty significant injuries both of them,” Deans said.

“To have it happen in the last outing, just before the break, won’t be something that they’re enjoying.

“But they’re resilient characters and they’ve got great habits and discipline in the way they go about their work, so they’re definitely capable of coming back.

“Obviously the Waratahs won’t be excited when they hear the news, but it’s just bad luck, just one of the unfortunate realities of the game.

“These things happen and I think if you put the question to the players, they’d say yeah they’d do it all again.”

Deans maintained it was a priceless learning experience for his depleted Wallabies – led by youngsters O’Connor, Quade Cooper and Tatafu Polota-Nau – who upstaged a World XV-strength Barbarians outfit full of All Blacks and Springboks stars.

“It bodes well for the future,” Deans said.

“These experiences are good for us. We’re obviously losing a couple of players and you can’t get away from that, but you can’t get that growth without getting some pain along the way either.”

In the absence of Test regulars Stirling Mortlock, Matt Giteau, Nathan Sharpe and Stephen Moore, Deans’ emerging stars – and as ever Smith – were awesome, denying the likes of Richie McCaw, Jerry Collins, John Smit and Schalk Burger victory in a bruising and, at times, spiteful encounter.

Deans reserved special praise for O’Connor, who, in his first start for the Wallabies, coped brilliantly with Bryan Habana, Joe Rokocoko and Shane Williams, as well as nailing three goals from as many attempts.

“He was fantastic,” Deans said.

“When you look at some of the players that he was up against and you consider he’s 18 years old and he’s playing against three of the best wingers in the world – and three of the best wingers in the world that we’ve seen for a decade – that’s pretty intimidating stuff.

“But you got an insight into some of his gifts, his footwork, and the ability to step up and kick three goals was great.”

Before the match, which marked 100 years since Australia won the rugby gold medal at the 1908 London Olympics, Smith had the honour of introducing Princess Anne to his Wallabies teammates.

Tale of the tour: Wallabies’ results spring tour Test results

NEW ZEALAND 19 (Richard McCaw, Sitiveni Sivivatu tries Daniel Carter 3 pens) bt AUSTRALIA 14 (Drew Mitchell 2 tries Matt Giteau 2 cons) at Hong Kong Stadium, Hong Kong. Crowd: 39,682. Referee: Alan Lewis (IRE). Man of the match: Richie McCaw (NZL)

AUSTRALIA 30 (Quade Cooper, Lachlan Turner tries Matt Giteau con Giteau 5, Stirling Mortlock pens) bt ITALY 20 (Mirco Bergamasco try Andrea Marcato 2, Luciano Orquera 2 pens Marcato drop goal) at Stadio Euganeo, Padova. Crowd: about 30,000. Referee: Bryce Lawrence (NZL). Man of the match: Ben Alexander (AUS)

AUSTRALIA 28 (Adam Ashley-Cooper try Matt Giteau con Giteau 6, Stirling Mortlock pens) bt ENGLAND 14 (Nick Easter try Danny Cipriani 2 pens Delon Armitage drop goal) at Twickenham, London. Crowd: 80,688. Referee: Marius Jonker (RSA). Man of the match: Stephen Moore (AUS)

AUSTRALIA 18 (Peter Hynes Stephen Moore tries Matt Giteau con 2 pens) bt FRANCE 13 (1 penalty try) (David Skrela con pen Maxime Medard drop goal) at Stade de France, Paris. Crowd: 79,231. Referee: Craig Joubert (RSA). Man of the match: Matt Giteau (AUS)

WALES 21 (Lee Byrne, Shane Williams tries Stephen Jones con 2 pens drop goal) bt AUSTRALIA 18 (Mark Chisholm, Digby Ioane tries Matt Giteau con pen drop goal) at Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. Crowd: 74,314. Referee: Alan Lewis (IRE). Man of the match: Lee Byrne (WAL)

Friendly

AUSTRALIA 18 (Lote Tuqiri, Lachlan Turner tries James O’Connor con 2 pens) bt BARBARIANS 11 (Jerry Collins try Percy Montgomery 2 pens) at Wembley Stadium, London. Crowd: about 50,000. Referee: Chris White (ENG)

© AAP 2012

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