Nothing could rain on the Wales Women’s parade in Brisbane - not even a deluge that forced the two teams off the field for 30 minutes, as they notched their first win of the year in Australia.
The 21-12 triumph over the Wallaroos earned new head coach Sean Lynn his first win in charge and was the first international triumph by a Welsh team, men’s and women’s, against an Australian team in Australia since 1969.
“I’m so proud of the girls and that meant a lot. Since the Six Nations, we have had tough conversations and worked so hard over the summer to get that result,” said skipper Alex Callender.
“We will celebrate this result but we also want to back it up next week to give us a good platform going into the World Cup.
“We talked about physicality and from 1-23 everyone stood up.
“This is the platform we were looking for and we won’t take a step backwards. When the rain came I told everyone not to switch off.
“When they scored the first try, nobody panicked. We stuck to our process and we delivered.”
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Lynn had put his players through a really tough six-week conditioning period over the summer months and got a big reaction from them after telling them in the aftermath of a winless Six Nations campaign that they weren’t working hard enough.
“I asked them to come in and set some targets. They’ve worked so hard in the past eight weeks and it was lovely to see that performance,” said an emotional Lynn, holding back the tears.
“That performance was everything we asked of ourselves and it is something we were going after. I’m over the moon for the girls and the staff.
“We are going to enjoy it, but we know it’s back to work on Monday with a six-day turn around into Sydney on Friday night.
“But that’s everything I wanted from them and they made us all proud.
“The youngsters stepped up and you could see the hard work of the summer is paying off. They are becoming better players and maturing nicely.
“I thought Alex and Bethan Lewis were outstanding in the back row and our half-backs controlled the game. We aren’t the finished article yet, though,and there is plenty to work on.
“But it’s amazing - what I asked from them they delivered. I asked them to believe and they showed everyone what they can do.”
Nel Metcalfe scored two tries as Wales earned a memorable victory at Ballymore.
Australia led 7-0 in the 12th minute when the players left the field due the dangers from a thunderstorm, but Wales seized the momentum after the unscheduled break to run out winners, 21-12.
It was just the second win in nine Tests against Australia for Wales, who are ranked 10th, four places below the Wallaroos.
Wales finished bottomin the most recent Six Nations - losing all five of their matches, but displayed plenty of enterprise on Saturday.
All three of their tries in Brisbane were scored by the backs while both of Australia’s five-pointers came from close range forward carries.
A hard-earned win came after Wales failed to win a game during this year’s Six Nations and they got off to a poor start when Annabelle Codey crossed for the hosts and Desiree Miller converted.
The game was soon stopped for around 30 minutes due to thunder and lightning, but after the restart, Wales responded from a scrum near the Australia tryline when a quick break away allowed Metcalfe to crash over, with Keira Bevan adding the extras.
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Metcalfe earned her second following some good pressure on the tryline and the full-back squeezed through a gap to ground before Bevan converted, but Australia pulled one back on the stroke of half-time through Tabua Tuinakauvadra from a rolling maul.
Miller was unable to convert, giving Wales a two-point lead at the break and they immediately extended their advantage two minutes into the second half when Hannah Dallavalle pounced on Lleucu George’s kick to cross and Bevan converted.
Wales were able to see out the game to take advantage in the two-Test series, which concludes in Sydney on Friday.
