Wales held off the Brumbies to secure their first win of their 2012 Australian tour with a 25-15 victory at Canberra Stadium on Tuesday.
Wales romped in three tries to none in a blistering opening half before staving off a late comeback by the home side for a comfortable 10-point win.
The win followed their 27-19 loss in the first Test against the Wallabies in Brisbane last weekend.
Wales coach Rob Howley rested most of his starting players ahead of the next Test in Melbourne on Saturday, with lock Luke Charteris the only one to back up against the Brumbies.
But against an inexperienced Brumbies team – six of whom were earning their first provincial caps – the second-best side the Six Nations champions put forward still managed to dominate.
They had the game in hand after the first half, enjoying a clear majority of possession and territory to repeatedly launch attacks, with Test veteran James Hook, Justin Tiperic and captain Alun Wyn Jones all finding their way over the line.
But Jake White’s men continued their never-say-die attitude of the Super Rugby season after the break, slotting three penalties through Zack Holmes to put them within four points with 10 minutes to go.
In front of a home crowd of 7248, they then twice looked like scoring a try before Wales held firm and then kicked two penalties of their own to put the final margin to 25-15.
An audition of sorts for both squads, debuting Brumbies wingers Cam Crawford and Tom Cox both made some eye-catching runs, while 19-year-old Harry Robinson did the same for Wales in just his second game for the visitors.
Bakkies
Guest
Match highlights up on WRU's website
HardcorePrawn
Guest
Good to see that Gareth Delve got a game in red shirt, hopefully he'll force himself back into regular contention for his national team now. Playing in France next year should probably boost his chances too.
Brett McKay
Expert
yeah, my apologies Johnno, Delve did come on before hafltime, but I completely missed it. He ended up playing about 45-50 minutes. I noted (and reported) pretty much every other change other than Delve coming on for Shingler, as Robbie has mentioned below. Sorry mate, led you astray.. Sadly, no Raiders Lime milk. But the media box pies were somewhat warm for a change, yes. Hope the blog went down well, it's been a while snice I've done one, but it was good fun to bring you guys all the action (or the action that I didn't miss, as it turns out). You can relive the game blog here: http://www.theroar.com.au/2012/06/12/brumbies-vs-wales-tour-match-live-scores-blog/
Stop Kicking
Guest
I was at the game and can confirm that Brett was lucky to get a Pie thanks to another average catering perfomance at Canberra stadium they were sold out by halftime. In terms of the game, I thought the Brumbies probably could have stolen it in the second half if it wasnt for a couple terrible options that came directly from Bernie on the sideline, everytime the whistle was blown he couldnt get out on the field quick enough with the kicking tee, which was fine on a couple of occasions but at one stage the Brumbies had put together a number of phases and were about a metre out from the line and recieved another penalty for slowing down at the breakdown. This was a perfect oppotunity to maintain pressure and push for the try and possibly a yellow card if Wales continued to infringe but instead Bernie got on to the feild and a penalty goal resulted. The Second point that frustrated me was with around 5 mins to go and the Brumbies had the ball on attack around 45m from the line and and a call comes out from Larkham on the sideline and a high kick is sent straght to the Welsh player just outside his 22 he then drills the ball down field into the Brumbies quarter where the covering player kicks directly into touch on around the Welsh 40. Wales win the lineout hold on for a couple of phases and the recieve a penalty to kick a goal and put the game out of reach.
Robbie Young
Guest
Delve did come off the bench, in the first half for arron shingler, and stayed on as shingler had back spasms!
Johnno
Guest
1 I want to say a big thank you from all roarers to Brett for a great live blog. -We at home had no tv coverage, but on radio, and no live stream on the internet , and he handle it well he was getting as many comments as the world game world cup qualifier , and this was a touring game vs Wales in freezing winters of Canberra in the naiton's capital. -I aksed Brett what he had for dinner at the match what did they serve up, he said he had some warmish pies, better than cold or soggy pies that we usually get at the footy. But did Brett have a Raiders lime Green milk with dinner at canbera stadium. And Delve didn't come off the bench maybe he will start the test in his hometown melbourne rebel Melbourne.