Wales missed out on fifth place at the World Rugby U20 Championship as they were beaten by a clinical Junior Wallabies side in a game of 14 tries and 90 points in Cape Town.
Bidding for their highest finish since ending as runners-up to England in 2013, Ryan Woodman’s side battled long and hard but couldn’t match the precision of the Aussies. Twice Welsh forwards got over the line, only to be denied the try and a poor pass from Harri Houston to Llien Morgan denied the Wales wing a hat-trick.
There was no lack of energy, urgency or attacking intent, but there were too many missed tackles and missed opportunities to make life difficult for the Wallabies.
Trailing by three tries to one at the end of the first half (15-5) the game was still very much in the balance. Wales looked good moving the ball and made a number of line-breaks to stress the Aussie defence.
The green and gold side got the scoreboard moving with their first attack of the game in the ninth minute when centre Harry O’Donnell picked up the first of his brace of tries. Wales hit back and actua.ly worked Mackenzie Martin over at the posts, only to realize the replacement lock had had the ball stolen from his grasp as he swooped to score.
Three minutes later it was Martin who made the midfield bust and sent Bryn Bradley into space. The centre raced up to the 22 before sending a perfect scoring pass to hooker Lewis Lloyd, who scampered over in the right corner to level the scores.
The Aussies flexed their muscles from two attacking line-outs before the end of the first half and lock Toby Macpherson powered over from the first and hooker Liam Bowron bagged the second to make it 15-5 at the break.
It might have been closer had No 8 Morgan Morse been able to touchdown after managing to get over the Australian line in the last move of the half. Nevertheless, Wales had every reason to think they could go on to win the game in the second half if they could tidy up their line-pout and get more accuracy into their game.
They needed a fast start to the second half, but unfortunately didn’t get it. Instead, O’Donnell dummied his way through for his second try and outside half Jack Bowen finally kicked a conversion.
Wales hit back with the first of Morgan’s two tries when he went over in the left corner after taking a delightful flat pass from Dan Edwards, who added the extras. It looked as though the game was once again back in the melting pot, although the Aussies had other ideas as they scored from the next two kick-offs.
Macpherson got his second when skipper and scrum half Teddy Wilson put him through a whole. Then the outstanding Wilson scored from the re-start before his half-back partner, Bowen, added another 12 minutes late to make it 43-12.
There were never any signs of the Welsh side giving up and Edward prodded through a kick for Morgan to race on to to pick up his second try. Spurred on by their third try of the afternoon, Wales picked up a fourth when Woodman barged his way over at the posts for a try that Edwards improved to cut the gap to 17 points.
The Aussies weren’t finished yet and replacement hooker Harrison Usher converted another driving line out that Bowen added the extra points to bring up the half-century. Flanker Ned Slack-Smith then made the most of an overthrown Welsh line-out to score a sucker try three minutes from time.
Wales at least had the last word as replacement scrum half Harri Williams received an inside pass from Louie Hennessey to race the length of the 22 to score a try that this time was converted by Harri Wilde.
