Australia 25 -16 Wales live: Wallabies edge to victory

It’s all over in Sydney as Wales slump to their eighth consecutive Test match defeats.

There were some positive signs for Wales but ultimately they were undone by their shaky set-piece.

Wales go through the phases and it’s a nice chip over the top from Sam Costelow but Josh Hathaway can’t quite get to the ball

Australia 25-16 Wales

That’s a cracking try from the Wallabies. It’s a poor kick from Hathaway and Tom Wright swerves past Nick Tompkins to run in a try from distance.

Tom Lynagh nailed the conversion

Cory Hill replaces Dafydd Jenkins

Archie Griffin wins a penalty at the breakdown. Ben Thomas kicks the penalty

Liam Williams is replaced by Nick Tompkins

The Cardiff scrum-half thwarts Australia’s defence and then puts in a great 50/22.

Wallabies put Wales under huge pressure. Lolesio with a cross kick but Kellaway can’t quite get to the ball

Australia 18-13 Wales

Australia can’t cope with Wales’ mauling game. They set up the maul and James Botham powers over from short-range with his first action off the bench.

But the try is disallowed by the TMO for obstruction!

Aaron Wainwright slices through the Australia defence but is ankle tapped by Jake Gordon. So close!

But Wales have a penalty and a chance to build some pressure in the Wallabies 22.

Australia 18-13 Wales

Wales mess up a lineout so Australia get a scrum. They make metres with their carries and go wide.

Filip Daugunu goes outside Mason Grady, and while the Cardiff man does well to chase him and bring the Fijian down he slides over to score.

Australia are laying siege to the Wales line but the visitors win the penalty at the breakdown courtesy of Christ Tshiunza

Australia 13-13 Wales

Ben Thomas has levelled the scores by converting a tough penalty. It’s been a good start to the second-half from Wales.

Wainwright charges forward off a five metre scrum and offloads to Hathaway who goes into touch.

Kemsley Mathias replaces the injured Gareth Thomas. Big blow

Australia 13-10 Wales

Christ Tshiunza gets go forward and offloads. Wales go wide and a nice kick from Josh Hathaway forced Australia to concede a five metre scrum.

Encouraging!

Australia 13-10 Wales

Noah Lolesio gets the second-half underway

Australia ran into an early 13-3 lead and things looked ominous for Wales who were getting knocked around physically. But Warren Gatland’s side have come back well and were awarded a penalty try.

This is anyone’s game.

Ellis Bevan spills a simple take and it’s compounded when Rio Dyer plays the ball from an offside position. Wallabies have a five metre attacking lineout.

Australia 13-10 Wales

A beautiful kick from Liam Williams gives Wales an attacking lineout in the Wallabies’ 22.

Gareth Thomas returns from the sin bin. Wales are in a good position but overcomplicate the lineout move and Dewi Lake knocks on

Australia 13-10 Wales

Wales are awarded a penalty try!

They go to the corner and Australia simply can’t cope with Wales’ driving lineout. Fraser McReight is also sent to the sin bin.

This is a great response from Wales

The try is disallowed due to a knock on from Owen Watkin. Wales have a penalty though

Australia 13-3 Wales

Ben Thomas puts a lovely grubber kick through. Both sides compete the ball before Wales eventually ground it.

We go to the TMO

Gareth Thomas is sent to the sin bin. Just too many penalties against Wales

Australia 13-3 Wales

Australia lay siege to the Wales line with a period of sustained pressure which ends up with Taniela Tupou powering over from short-range.

Wales are getting bullied here. Noah Lolesio adds the extras

Wales are simply giving away too many penalties. It’s six in total so far.

You simply cannot afford to be so ill-disciplined and expect to win a Test match.

Australia 6-3 Wales

Noah Lolesio makes no mistake this time as he smashes over a penalty from 40 metres

Wales get stuffed in the first scrum on their own put in. Very worrying

That’s a bad miss from Noah Lolesio who hits the ball wide from in front of the posts. A let off for Wales

Andrew Kellaway slices open the Wales defence before releasing Tom Wright. Australia have Wales under serious pressure here and the visitors are forced to concede another penalty.

Worrying signs for Wales’ midfield defence as Mason Grady and Owen Watkin bite in. Australia have done their homework.

Australia test Wales’ defence for the first time in the match. They go wide and Liam Williams is penalised for hands on the floor at the breakdown.

Noah Lolesio slams over the penalty.

Great kick from Lolesio and Reffell is penalised. Australia have a five metre attacking lineout

It’s a good start for Ben Thomas who slams over a penalty from 40 metres on the angle

Wales start with real purpose really testing the Australian defence. They receive a penalty for a no arms tackle

Ben Thomas gets the game underway

Aaron Wainwright leads Wales out on what is his 50th cap for his country. The matchball is brought out by Australian great Michael Hooper who has recently retired from Test rugby.

First is the Welcome to Country followed by the national anthems.

Wales are chasing their first win against the Wallabies on Australian soil since 1969.

Australia are heavy favourites with the bookmakers but Wales have won four of their last five Test matches against the Wallabies. Wales have lost their previous seven Test matches, which includes a Six Nations Wooden Spoon, but this is Australia’s first game under new head coach Joe Schmidt.

Australian rugby is in dire straits with one of their professional sides the Melbourne Rebels going bust while key players Mark Nawaqanitawase and Carter Gorden turning their back on rugby union for the NRL. The Wallabies were dumped out of the World Cup at the pool stage just under 10 months ago while they were thrashed 40-6 by Wales in Lyon.

Wales aren’t in great form but they have a decent chance of coming out on top here.

Warren Gatland rolled the dice this week by selecting Ben Thomas at outside-half in place of Sam Costelow. Thomas has been outstanding for Cardiff this season but has been utilised at inside centre at club level with only one start in the number 10 jersey.

But Gatland sees Thomas’ future in the number 10 shirt and the hope is he will add a different dimension to Wales’ attacking game. The challenge for Thomas will undoubtedly be his game management and making the right decisions under pressure.

There is only three caps between scrum-half Ellis Bevan and Thomas so it would be a surprise if the Wallabies didn’t target the inexperienced Cardiff pair.

“I’ve just been impressed with him at Cardiff,” said Gatland. T”he couple of games he’s played there, he’s looked comfortable at 10. He’s a player that has got time on the ball. We know he’s got some work to do.

“But it’s a position where there isn’t a huge amount of strength in depth if we do pick up injuries. With Ben, it just gives us another option.

“Jacob Beetham is another player we could look at 10. He did well when he came on against South Africa. He’s a guy we’re looking at for the future. With Sam as well, being on the bench, having some experience. We’ve spoken to Sam and been upfront about trying to create some more depth in that 10 position.”

Thomas will also take on the goal kicking responsibilities. “He’s been working hard with Neil Jenkins,” said Gatland.

“I’d say there’s probably others around who, percentage-wise, are a little bit better than where he is. But that’s not what we’re focusing on at the moment. We think with his kicking game and the amount of work he does with Neil, he’ll improve in that area.”

On paper this should be a very tight Test match. Wales are in a period of transition whereas this is a new era for the Wallabies under Joe Schmidt.

Read our head-to-head ratings here

It’s just finished in New Zealand and the All Blacks have scraped past England 16-15!

Really excited to see how Josh Hathaway goes on the wing today. He has all the ingredients to be some player, and it’s great to see him commit to Wales after playing for England U20s, particularly after what happened with Immanuel Feyi-Waboso (who, by the way, has just put England 15-10 up against the All Blacks!).

Liam Williams is a big fan, saying of Hathaway: “I think he’s going to be a hell of a player, if I’m being perfectly honest. A couple of times when we’ve trained back at the Vale he’s been making line breaks and made a couple of us look stupid at times. He scored a nice try in the session this afternoon too.

“But he’s young and he’s raw so he needs people like myself to just help him along and the coaches are doing that too. He’s doing his work off the field as well, looking at the laptop because it’s obviously new to him, it’s completely new with the playbook and stuff. But he’s been really good and I think he’s going to be a really good athlete and a good player for Wales.”

Here’s young Hathaway’s first Wales jersey ready for his arrival…

A reminder today’s Australia v Wales match kicks off at 10.55am UK time.

New Zealand v England is already well under way and into the second-half. The score is currently 10-10 after 47 minutes.

Arguably the biggest game of the day between South Africa and Ireland kicks off at 4pm.

Our man Ben James is on his way to the stadium in Sydney to cover the match. Here is his prediction…

As the throngs of journalists from all over jostled towards the lifts in the Parc Olympique Lyonnais last September, a couple of English scribes got halfway to starting up a conversation with myself, before realising they didn’t quite know what to say.

After Warren Gatland’s side had trounced the Wallabies 40-6 in their World Cup pool clash, everyone watching on was a little speechless. And while I expected the opening salvo from these journalists to revolve around how good Wales were, the topic of conversation once they’d found their words was about how woeful Australia – and their old sparring partner Eddie Jones – had been.

That the Wallabies are favourites this week only serves to show just how long ago that surreal night in Lyon was. Just six of the 30 players who started that night will feature from the beginning this weekend.

With Joe Schmidt having replaced Jones in charge Down Under, the Wallabies shouldn’t be anywhere near as awful as they were last year. There’s a host of new faces and you know that a coach of Schmidt’s calibre and style will be able to put some pieces in place with little time.

Wales, traditionally in the last five or so years, have struggled with defending ball movement and attacking subtleties. They’ve been far happier going toe to toe with the brutality of the Springboks than any side that moves them around, so expect Schmidt to lean heavily on his three-phase strike plays to test that out.

The Welsh players seemed fairly relaxed about the work they’d done in training to stop all that, while Gatland was quietly pleased about Wales’ up-turn in territory against South Africa compared to that wooden spoon campaign.

With the 10-12 axis of Ben Thomas and Mason Grady a touch unconventional on paper, the hope will be that they can do just enough to get Wales playing in the right areas.

The battle up front is equally fascinating. Both sides have debutants in the front-five and both will be quietly confident of getting the edge there.

Frankly, this one – with so many unknowns – is too close to call. It’s worth remembering that Australia started that match in Lyon the better, but didn’t take their chances. Wales did, and were then able to pull away convincingly after Australia had run out of other kitchen appliances to throw after the sink didn’t work

The importance of that opening quarter will be huge to defining a Test series which, let’s be honest, means far more to both nations than either is letting on.

Australia 29-25 Wales

A very warm welcome to our live coverage of today’s match in Sydney between the Wallabies and Wales.

It’s going to be a pretty fascinating encounter with two very new teams and a pitch filled with inesperienced youngsters.

Let’s start by looking at the two sides in depth. Rugby correpsondent Steffan Thomas has rated each of the players in the 15 head-to-head battles we’ll see today. Take a look here.