KEY POINTS:
There was plenty of drama, barely any spectacle and so nearly one massive upset in Sydney last night. The Welsh, against all the odds, against every prediction, were leading by a point after the hooter had gone.
But tragedy of all tragedies, Stephen Hoiles scored in injury time
to get Australia out of jail and claim a victory they barely deserved.
Still, the fact this was supposedly a Welsh C team makes it legitimate - Australia are as bad as their Super 14 form hinted.
That's right, the Wallabies were rubbish. For the first half hour, they were really rubbish.
Stand-in first five-eighths Sam Norton-Knight was so bad that surely coach John Connolly was having a laugh - taking pre-World Cup mind games to extremes.
The unfortunate Norton-Knight fired his first pass pretty much into the face of Stirling Mortlock, the Welsh pounced on the loose ball and eventually captain Gareth Thomas forced the ball down.
For his second trick, Norton-Knight threw another pass off his left hand under no pressure that went three yards forward.
This from a backline that not so long ago played the most fluid, intricate football, thanks to the individual skill levels and ability to execute under pressure.
Julian Huxley wasn't in any danger of preserving the legacy of those who had gone before and seemed to reckon Norton-Knight was on to something, judging by the way he came into the line after 17 minutes and promptly threw the ball straight to Jamie Robinson.
A Jamie Hook penalty a few minutes later put the Welsh 17-0 up and it was obvious the men in red were bristling at having been written off all week as nothing more than the dregs from a very long Northern Hemisphere season.
The labelling of this team as Wales C always seemed a little harsh, as there was a smattering of quality in all the right places.
Hook is well respected in Wales and did plenty last night to prove why. He took the ball nicely into the traffic, tackled bravely and read the space well. His halfback partner Mike Phillips is a strong-running No 9 and his constant probing kept the Welsh moving forward with the pack reasonably adept at getting in behind and keeping things going.
Certainly the Welsh were more creative, more dynamic and far better organised than Australia. The only flaw in the Welsh plan was that they couldn't gain enough possession.
Australia, on the other hand, were tactically bereft. They played with no real idea of what level they wanted to play the game.
At times they tried to offload into contact but struggled with the execution and then they toyed with using runners one out just to bash endlessly up the guts.
When the ball did go wide, the backs persevered with the high-risk policy of flinging flat, wide passes. Not a bad tactic but it needs some of the runners to hit the ball at a different angle or to inject some pace.
It was all flat, flat, flat and no one in the All Black management team will be watching the video this morning with any sense of dread.
The only bright spot for the Wallabies was Matt Giteau, whose electric running from the base tormented the Welsh. He's a supremely talented player and if there were a few smarter men outside him running better angles and looking to come short off his shoulder, Australia would have been deadly in those usually tight areas around the breakdown.
It was a Giteau snipe after 55 minutes that took him over and then a Mortlock penalty a couple of minutes later signalled the change in momentum.
That score put the Wallabies 22-20 ahead and, with the Welsh tiring from their defensive efforts in the first half, there was no sense the visitors were going to find a way to hang on.
They dug in gallantly and they had to because, by the final quarter, the Wallabies had eradicated some of the basic errors and had brought George Gregan off the bench and pushed Giteau into midfield.
The more they dug in, the more they realised they were still a chance and more than that when Hook dropped a well struck goal with just five minutes remaining.
It looked enough until Hoiles broke their hearts but the Wallabies don't have much to celebrate.
There wasn't really enough time to determine whether the introduction of Gregan gave Australia more balance and threat. But given what little threat was being posed under the original lineup, it's a safe enough bet to say Connolly will have to give much thought to starting Gregan at halfback this week and keeping Giteau in his more natural home in the midfield.
Australia 29 (W. Palu, N. Sharpe, M. Giteau, S. Hoiles tries; S. Mortlock 3 cons, 1 pen) Wales 23 (G. Thomas, J. Robinson tries; J. Hook 2 cons, 2 pens, DG) HT Wales 17-12.
