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SYDNEY - A last-gasp Wallabies victory over Wales couldn't avert the predictable barrage of criticism from Australia's rugby media.
"Half-baked Wales embarrassed the Wallabies and left their World Cup hopes in tatters after almost staging the biggest test upset on Australian soil in 34 years," writer Peter Jenkins said in the Sunday Telegraph.
A try to replacement flanker Stephen Hoiles in injury time gave the Wallabies a 29-23 win in their first test of the World Cup year.
The Telegraph led its sports section with a photo of Hoiles diving over, and the heading, "One second from disaster - Hoiles saves Wallabies from total embarrassment".
On the inside pages it was more of the same. "Hoiles well that ends well for sad Wallabies. A blundering, ineffective Australia almost hand Wales their first win Down Under in 38 years until a rookie saved the day."
An experimental Wales were without 18 frontline players and were rated rank outsiders, while the Wallabies were missing only Stephen Larkham (injured) and Lote Tuqiri (rested) from their top lineup.
"They were error-ridden to the point of being grossly incompetent," Jenkins wrote of the Wallabies.
The Sun-Herald was more forgiving. "Wallabies save face in dying moments," was its lead headline.
"The wobbly Wallabies got away with it with a dramatic try in extra time, but they came so close to suffering the most dreadful of international moments when they did everything they could to hand the first test to Wales," Greg Growden wrote.
Wallabies coach John Connolly said early season tests were always messy affairs. "All I can say to the Wallabies fan is this is the World Cup year and it's going to be a tight and tense campaign all the way to our last game in France," the coach wrote in his Sun-Herald column.
- NZPA
