The Wallabies arrived at the first World Cup as favourites and were determined to make history. Sadly for them, the only notable history they made on their way to losing the third-place playoff came when flanker David Codey became the first Australian to be shown a red card in a test match.
English referee Fred Howard warned Codey for trampling on Welshmen at a ruck within the first minute of the playoff. When he did it again in the fifth minute, Codey was gone.
His teammates were horrified and told Howard he had busted the wrong man.
Herald columnist Andrew Slack was the Wallaby captain that day. "Codey rushed into a ruck and did what most forwards did in those days: he used his feet to get rid of the opposing flotsam and jetsam hanging around the ball," recalls Slack. "The ball was definitely in the vicinity and although Codey's rucking might have been a bit 'up and downish' when he first arrived, I thought Fred Howard's send-off was very, very harsh."
Nonetheless, the Alan Jones-coached Australians were sharp enough lead 21-16 with a couple of minutes to play. Welsh first-five Jonathan Davies hoisted the ball skyward for everyone to chase. In the chaos that followed, winger Adrian Hadley scored in the corner, fullback Paul Thorburn landed a tough conversion for the 22-21 win.
