Biggar finds the target end to Wales ten years to put an of misery
AND SO the biggest blot on Warren Gatland's copybook has been erased at long last, a result to reaffirm Welsh faith in the law of averages if not much else.
Never can a Test match as grim as this one have generated such unrestrained collective jubilation from Gatland and his coterie of coaches, none more so than Shaun Edwards.
A stop had finally been put to ten years of recurring failure against Australia and Wales' favourite Englishman had endured the worst of runs from start to finish.
As defence coach, Edwards is entitled to reflect on a night made satisfying by the fact that Wales kept a clean trysheet against opponents who had scored five in three losing tilts at the All Blacks. On the flip side, it has to be said that Wales failed to create a solitary try themselves, a failure made all the more surprising given the ‘Wobblies' recent penchant for conceding them left, right and centre.
And yet Wales only just made it, Dan Biggar emerging from the supporting cast to replace a wounded Leigh Halfpenny in the nick of time to nail the winning penalty. It ensured that justice was done given the injustice that gave their opponents fleeting hope of a reprieve.
Had Australia been allowed to get away with a draw, Wales would have had ample reason for believing they had been victims of floodlit robbery. Matt Toomua's equalising goal ought to have been reversed as punishment for Samu Kerevi's reckless hit on Halfpenny seconds earlier.
It was late and high and demanded a penalty, at the very least. New Zealand referee Ben O'Keefe made his ruling without recourse to the TMO, then told a puzzled Wales captain
Alun-Wyn Jones: “It wasn't a deliberate act of foul play.'' The law does not distinguish between intention or lack of it.
Kerevi's action did not appear intentional but there was no question that he committed a dangerous tackle and that Toomua's goal, arrowed from close to the right hand touchline with Welsh protests ringing in his ears, should not have been allowed.
By then Halfpenny had been helped off the field to finish the strangest game of his life undergoing the concussion protocols. He had been stricken in a psychological sense long before Kerevi applied the physical equivalent.
On a night which marked the tenth anniversary of his debut as the best defensive full-back since JPR Williams bestrode the stage like a one-man Panzer division, Halfpenny missed two penalties from virtually in front of the posts. Perhaps the shock of fluffing the first contributed to the greater shock of fluffing the second.
What with that and the Wallabies literally throwing away two close-range lines out, it was almost as if the gods had conspired to ensure that Wales would be doomed to succumb to the gambler's fallacy, that if something keeps happening over a lengthy period, it will happen less frequently in the future.
Once the relief of stopping the Australian rot wears off, the Welsh management will be left to pick the bones out of a game that, to put it politely, left a lot to be desired not least as a spectacle.
The Wallabies arrived at the happiest of their overseas hunting grounds beneath a cloud as dirty as those above the roof. If nothing else it offered them a refuge of sorts from a domestic season grim enough to raise concerns over the future of the game never mind Michael Cheika's future as head coach.
They began as if the return to the scene of so many victories had an immediately liberating effect, a surfeit of early possession leaving Wales counting their blessings at escaping the onslaught unscathed. Anscombe's tackle stopped Samu Kerevi scoring a try which would have been given despite the forward pass that sent the Fijian centre stampeding towards the line.
When they eventually got their hands on the ball, Wales raised a few alarms against opponents who had been leaking tries at the rate of almost four a game over their last seven outings.
They would have conceded another within the first ten minutes had Anscombe's cross-kick been accurate. Instead of putting the ball on a plate for Josh Adams to finish off from a position of splendid isolation on the left wing, it flew into touch far from his despairing reach. Minutes later, Wales again did their unwitting worst to ensure the scoreboard stayed pointless.
Halfpenny's strange night got off to a traumatic start, a routine penalty miss which sailed outside the near post. A third penalty won by Wales from the first three scrums allowed him to recover his composure with the opening score only to miss the next one, the proverbial sitter.
When the New Zealand referee caught Dan Lydiate off-side, Foley duly made it count with an equalising goal from more than 40 metres. Having seen his props concede three penalties, hooker Tolu Latu proceeded to give away the softest one of all.
His demonstration of front-row fraternity could hardly have been more extravagant given its location within chipping distance of the posts. Halfpenny's miss had the crowd rubbing their eyes in collective bewilderment while the man himself stared at the woodwork in utter disbelief.
The blunders were proving so contagious that Australia wasted little time showing Wales that they, too could miss a sitting target. It was almost as if nobody could apply the simplest of basic skills required to take charge of a match fast drifting into a non-event.
Foley having declined a second close-range shot at goal to find the corner instead, Latu sent his throw sailing over the tail of the line-out into Welsh hands.
What ensued would have tested the patience of a surprisingly tolerant crowd.
As if the aerial pingpong wasn't tedious enough, the match as a spectacle took a further battering from a series of individual blunders.
Tomos Williams, newly into the fray, had no sooner replaced Gareth Davies than he knocked-on, hot on the heels of Michael Hooper doing likewise for the Wallabies.
In the end, driven forward by relentless Justin Tipuric, Wales managed to put them out of their misery within two minutes of Biggar coming off the bench.
When fate beckoned, the Saint from Northampton was never going to miss.
