The Qantas Wallabies have defeated the Barbarians 40 to 36 in a close encounter at Twickenham Stadium in London on Sunday morning.
The Wallabies scored six tries to the Barbarians five in 77 point match that saw both sides test out their attack with fast attacking Rugby.
The victory is Australia’s first win on their five week tour of Europe with their next match against Wales at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on Saturday 8 November.
THE MATCH
The Barbarians started the match showing the intent for the style of play they intended to employ as they rushed up in defence to place pressure on Australia and were determined to throw the ball wide in possession.
The first try of the match came through the Barbarians, Frank Halali. After several phases of attack the Barbarians were able to expose the Wallabies defence out wide with Halali outpacing the cover defence to score in the corner to take the score to 5-0.
The Wallabies first try came off the back of some patient play in the 24th minute. The Australian backs exposed the Barbarians and an excellent attacking run from Sam Carter allowed the giant lock to crash over and give Australia a 5-7 lead.
The creativity of the Barbarians was on display as they countered the Wallabies try immediately with Adam Thompson out gunning the Wallabies defence to score in the corner.
All Blacks representative, Colin Slade converted the try from the corner to take the score to 12-7.
Australia continued to test their arm against the Barbarians as the new look Wallabies looked to impress new Head Coach Michael Cheika.
As Australia advanced well within the Barbarians defensive zone, Benn Robinson crashed over for Australia’s second try giving the Wallabies a 12-14 lead.
Both sides continued to ask questions of the respective opposition defensives but neither could score again before the half time interval leaving Australia with a two point lead of 12-14.
Australia’s second half started well and was highlighted by Australian Under 20s captain, Sean McMahon breaking through the Barbarians defence for a daring run.
Tevita Kuridrani scored for Australia after some powerful individual effort on for the Barbarians to counter off the kick off with Francis Saili scoring near the right upright brining the score to 19-21 in favour of Australia.
A successful penalty kick from Colin Slade gave the Barbarians the lead again as they edged past the Wallabies 22-21.
With Head Coach Michael Cheika bringing in five changes to the Wallabies as the match entered the final stanza, winger Rob Horne was able to find some space and score in the corner to return Australia to the lead 22-26.
Australia extended its lead with tries to Bernard Foley and Sean McMahon in his first appearance for Australia to bring the score to 22-40.
They weren’t the only Australians to score in the second half as Nick Cummins, formerly of the Western Force ran a great line to score underneath the posts with less than ten minutes remaining.
With the clock counting down the Barbarians continued to attack. Marnitz Boshoff finished off a classic “Babas” style try that went 80 metres to bring the score 36-40 in favour of Australia.
The Wallabies will take on Wales next Saturday 8 November in Cardiff.
