Every successful side have their eureka moment, a snapshot when they prove to themselves and the rugby world that they have what it takes to be the best. For England under Sir Clive Woodward it was in 2003, before the World Cup they were to go on to win, when they played New Zealand in Wellington and were 12-6 ahead when Neil Back and Lawrence Dallaglio were sent to the sin-bin.
They hung on, surviving a series of scrums on their line, showing a collective desire and strength of mind that convinced even the most hardened sceptics in the southern hemisphere that England would be the team to beat in the World Cup in Australia later that year.
Australia were 12-6 up on Wales on Saturday when Will Genia was sent to the sin-bin, followed by Dean Mumm three minutes later. A team who less than a year before had been a laughing stock, armed with too many players whose talent was outweighed by their selfishness, were staring at defeat one week after carving England’s defence with an electric knife.
They had shown they could play but they now faced a test of character, nerve and inner self-belief. Wales threw everything at them: driving mauls, picking from the base of a ruck and attacking at an angle, driving through the middle and going wide. The Wallabies, by now without their breakdown specialists Sean McMahon and David Pocock, who may be cited for an alleged knee on Scott Baldwin, held firm and even the suspected weak leak in their defence, Bernard Foley, felled the rather larger George North with a copybook tackle.
North looked certain to score when he was at the end of a slick passing movement, one that could have seen another Wallaby sent to the sin-bin because Alex Cuthbert was taken out off the ball, and had the right-hand corner in his sights. He stepped slightly infield but, when he reached the line, Ben McCalman got underneath the centre and stopped him grounding the ball.
It was the moment that decided the match. Wales had given everything and their subsequent attacks carried more hope than expectation. Adam Ashley-Cooper had started the siege for his side by being caught off-side at a ruck, giving Gareth Davies the chance to take a quick penalty and charge at his opposite number, Will Genia, to earn the first yellow card. But Ashley-Cooper made spectacular amends later, wrapping up Dan Biggar in a tackle that forced the outside-half to concede a penalty for holding on; the game was over with more than 10 minutes to go. Wales had shown their hand and it had been trumped.
As Wales attacked in waves – Taulupe Faletau lost control of the ball in the act of touching down – a television camera kept turning to the Australia coach, Michael Cheika, the man who has turned the Wallabies from expected World Cup also-rans into contenders. He remained impassive, watching versions of himself on the field getting stuck in and not yielding.
The former Scotland full-back Hugo Southwell, who played for Stade Français under Cheika, said the coach would often stand at fly-half in training sessions, taking everything the likes of Sergio Parisse could throw at him. His players know that he is not asking them to do anything he would not, or has not done, himself. They are their master’s voice.
When Australia won the World Cup in 1991 and 1999, the two previous occasions the tournament has taken place in the British Isles, they were strong up front, able to win the ball as well as use it. Cheika has overseen a transformation of a scrum that tended to have only one gear: reverse. It was notable in the Rugby Championship that the Wallabies were prepared to stay down longer in the set piece but they have used it as a weapon in the World Cup.
Wales picked their two best scrummaging props but Australia’s loosehead, Scott Sio, attacked Samson Lee on Wales’ tighthead from the start, earning penalties and points. While Wales’ line speed in defence and Sam Warburton’s snaffling at the breakdown blunted the Wallabies’ attack, a team that last November had little to fall back on is now multi-layered.
“There is a belief and a trust in the squad and we are ready to dig deep for each other,” said the Australia prop, Sekope Kepu. “We do not take a backward step and our scrum has improved in the 10 months Michael Cheika has been in charge. He has brought in Mario Ledesma and we now have an eight-man mentality in the set piece; it is not just about the front row. We have worked hard, not so much on scrummaging machines but on our fitness. We know that, if we do our job, it makes it easier for the backs.”
Cheika was not getting carried away by the prospect of a route to the final that does not contain a New Zealand roadblock. “There is no favourable side of the draw,” he said when asked about the prospect of playing Scotland in Sunday’s quarter-final at Twickenham. “There are no easy games in this tournament. I am proud of the way the players performed against Wales. If they say that behind every good man there is a good woman, behind every good attack is a great defence.”
Wales have played England, Fiji and Australia in the last two weeks and have South Africa to look forward to on Saturday. They will have to find yet another three-quarter after Liam Williams’ foot injury ruled him out of the tournament and to massage battered bodies and minds but they showed in defeat that it takes everything a side has to beat them.
Australia Folau; Ashley-Cooper, Kuridrani, Giteau (Toomua, 66), Mitchell (Beale, 66); Foley, Genia (Phipps, 67); Sio (Slipper, 62), Moore (capt; Polota-Nau, 66), Kepu (Holmes, 55), Douglas, Mumm, Fardy, McMahon (McCalman, 48), Pocock (Simmons, 59).
Pens Foley 5.
Sin-bin Genia 56, Mumm 59.
Wales Anscombe; Cuthbert, North, Roberts (Lloyd Williams, 79), Liam Williams (Hook 73); Biggar (Priestland 73), G Davies; James (Jarvis, 72), Baldwin (Owens, 72), Lee (Francis, 53), Charteris, AW Jones, Warburton (capt), Tipuric (Moriarty, 72), Faletau.
Pens Biggar 2.
Sin-bin Cuthbert 76.
Referee C Joubert (SA). Attendance 80,863
