Wallabies shock Wales with 18-8 victory

Press, 12 June 1978, Page 28

Wallabies shock Wales with 18-8 victory

NZPA staff correspondent Brisbane Australia served notice that it will provide a stern challenge for the All Blacks on its rugby tour of New Zealand when it beat Wales, 18-8, at Ballymore Oval yesterday.

The Wallabies won the watch with 10-man rugby. The first five-eighths, Paul McLean, was Australia’s hero. He dictated tactics with his accurate, probing kicks, but, even more importantly, landed four penalty goals and a conversion. The only times he was off target with kicks were when he twice attempted dropped The win was only the sec-1 ond by Australia in official; tests against Wales.

A capacity 25,000 crowd at Bal iymore went wild with excitement when Australia sealed the match with its only try midway through the second half. i After leading, 9-4 at halfI time. Australia had seen ! Wales close to 9-8 and was under a lot erf pressure when the lock. Geoff Wheel, was ruled offside. The referee, I Mr Bob Burnett, a controversial appointment, took | play back inside the Welsh 22m line, and from the re- ! suitant scrum Australia 'scored when the wing, Phil-

lip Crowe cut in to touch down near the posts. A feature Of the first half was the early dominance shown by the Australians in the line-outs. Wales redressed the balance in the second half by frequently resorting to the use of twoman and four-man line-outs.

Wales generally had tighter control in the scrums, rucks and mauls, but behind the forwards, the half-back, Brynmor Williams, was ! unable to provide the tidy i service which Australia’s

Rod Hauser gave to McLean. The Wallaby full-back, Laurie Monaghan, gave a superb display when under pressure and fully answered the critics who said he should never play full-back again after his shocking display against the 1974 All Blacks.

Australia’s points came from the try by Crowe, the conversion and four penalty goals by McLean, while Wales’ points came from tries by Gerald Davies and Bryn Williams.