Wallabies win a triumph of guts, determination, and plenty of luck

“That’s one of the best wins I’ve been involved with, with this team. I’m so proud of all the boys,” Wallabies captain Stephen Moore said on the ground immediately on full-time.

It was Moore at his understated best, because I can’t think of any performance from this team that would come close to topping what the Wallabies were able to achieve in their epic 15-9 Rugby World Cup win over Wales at Twickenham in London.

It was a good thing I had to stay up and write this reaction, because going back to sleep after that desperate, character-building Australian victory would have been impossible.

From the 57th minute onwards, the Wallabies’ gameplan became a secondary concern. There was no time for such luxuries as sheer desperation took over. First Will Genia copped a yellow card for a clear and obvious cynical infringement, and then three minutes later Dean Mumm joined him for repeated Australian infringements with Wales deep on attack.

What happened over the next seven minutes was just… well, I just don’t have the words to describe it.

For those seven minutes, the Wallabies defended their line with 13 men, and didn’t get the full defensive component back for another three minutes after that.

In that time Wales had all the ball, received I-don’t-know-how-many penalties – it must have been half a dozen, easily – and were so entrenched in the Wallabies’ 22 that they’d have had a fair claim on squatting rights. Yet they came away with nothing to show for it.

Not. One. Point.

The deeper the Wallabies go in this Rugby World Cup now, the more they’ll look back on those 23 minutes to shut out this game. They may not encounter a situation so defensively desperate in the tournament again, and on the off chance they do, then they will have only good memories.

Up 12-6 going into the last half an hour, but far from comfortable, the Wallabies just had to dig in.

Sean McMahon had a really strong game, but was replaced after 50 minutes in what looked very prescribed; like it was going to happen no matter where the game was placed. Only a minute later it looked ill-conceived, as David Pocock began to battle with a calf strain.

Fortunately, Ben McCalman came on and had an immediate impact, and proved to be the man in the right place at so many right times.

When the dual yellow cards came out, it just became a matter of clear communication in defence, accuracy in contact, and belief in the guy next to them. And for God’s sake, no more bloody penalties! Two out of three ain’t bad, as it turns out.

There were so many moments to pinpoint in those last 23 minutes. Wales crashed over the line at least twice, only to be held up by Australian defenders who always seemed to find a spare arm to get under the ball. The Wallabies’ scrum – again rock solid – somehow held with only seven men packing down and their tryline right there behind them.

But without doubt, the big moment came in the 69th minute, when Adam Ashley-Cooper rushed up out of the Wallabies line and made a massive hit in the Welsh midfield. As I wrote this, I rewound the tackle four times, and I still couldn’t make out which Welsh player it was; I assume it was George North at outside centre, but will stand corrected.

Whoever it was, Ashley-Cooper was all over him the microsecond the ball arrived, and before North could work out what the hell had just happened, Ashley-Cooper was on his feet at the ball, and won the penalty.

The Wallabies had survived the onslaught.

When the Wallabies did finally reacquaint themselves with the ball in the last 10 minutes, ‘The Finishers’, as Michael Cheika has converted us all into thinking, were superb. Matt Toomua and Kurtley Beale did a great job of taking Welsh defensive pressure off Bernard Foley, who in turn was regaining his attacking confidence after taking a pummelling in the first half. The Welsh took all his space and thinking time away from him.

Now it was Wales conceding penalties, and they lost a man to the sin bin themselves, when Alex Cuthbert was pinged for a deliberate knock-down.

And now, somehow, Wales were out on their feet. Despite having 64 per cent of second-half possession, and having to make well less than half the tackles the Wallabies did, the Welsh looked lethargic. They were the better side for an hour of this match easily, yet they couldn’t find the points when it mattered and now they had nothing. Foley missed his sixth penalty attempt for the night with two minutes to go, but it didn’t really matter.

Australia had not just survived, but they’d overcome massive hurdles – largely self-inflicted, it must be said – to emerge from the hardest game of the tournament to date with the points. They had successfully climbed out of the Pool of Death in first place.

“I don’t know how they did, but I’m glad they did,” was Cheika’s post-match summary of what he’d just seen unfold.

I don’t know either, and judging by my Twitter feed and our live blog comments, neither do many Wallabies fans currently. It’s hard to know where that performance has come from, but it will make the other seven quarter-finals combatants take notice.

Scott Fardy was the official man of the match, and all Joe Launchbury jokes aside, this one I think the popular vote got right. Fardy made 11 tackles without a miss, and was the constant breakdown nuisance that Wales didn’t see while they focussed so hard on Pocock.

But there was a long line of Wallabies runners-up behind Fardy – Ashley-Cooper, Pocock, Kane Douglas, Scott Sio, McCalman, and McMahon were all excellent. Tevita Kuridrani played his best Test of 2015 by some margin, and Toomua and Beale off the bench provided great impact. Foley didn’t have it all his way in attack, but his goal-kicking was again very good.

And there’s still plenty for the Wallabies to work on, too, before they face Scotland in the quarters. The lineout was worryingly bad and the maul was often ineffective, and it was Welsh locks Alun-Wyn Jones and Luke Charteris causing the problems in both cases.

The Wallabies looked stilted in attack, and were guilty of playing far too deep, in the face of the rushing Welsh defence. Australian discipline was at times poor, and responsible for the simultaneous gnashing of teeth and launching of TV remotes among Wallabies supporters.

Injury concerns will be there, too, with Pocock finishing in a bad way, and Israel Folau a long way off the 100 per cent fitness he had said he wouldn’t play unless he could achieve.

Character. Guts. Determination. Belief. Luck. Plenty of luck.

The Wallabies have needed all of it to pull off the most remarkable of Rugby World Cup wins. I thought the effort against England last week would take some topping, but wow, haven’t they just.