By Paul Jones
Gareth Anscombe picked up the Player of the Match award for his match-winning performance off the bench for Wales in Lyon, but he missed out on a Welsh World Cup record.
Having struck the post with his first kick of the night after replacing the injured Dan Biggar early on in the first half, he then put together a series of eight successive kicks that condemned Australia to a record defeat against Wales.
Biggar had converted the sensational second minute try from scrum half Gareth Davies, and Anscombe added the extras to the try he made for centre Nick Tompkins early in the second half with a neat dink over the top of the Aussie defence into no mans land.
https://twitter.com/BBCSportWales/status/1706186057539072422?s=20
He also added six penalties, three in each half, and a drop goal for a match tally of 23 points. That matched the Welsh record for a World Cup match set by Biggar against England at Twickenham in 2015, but he could have gone higher.
When the Welsh forwards drove skipper Jac Morgan over the line for a third try two minutes from time, you would have put your mortgage on Anscombe adding the conversion. But he struck the post again!
“Dan Biggar means so much to this team, he’s a real spiritual leader. I knew I had to just come on and do my role and that was all I was focused on,” said Anscombe.
“The boys were really calm and we got off to a really good start. Our boys up front were outstanding, they dominated the set-piece and I was just able to keep rolling forward.
“I’m just absolutely delighted, and so relieved. We knew they were going to be desperate.
“We talked a lot this week about family and the people we care about. We talk about the red wall and to concede only six points against Australia is just remarkable.”
Australia swept away on a crimson tide… https://t.co/L82mFQbm2a
— Robert Kitson (@robkitson) September 25, 2023
Mighty ‘Captain Jac’ Morgan must have pushed Anscombe for the official man of the match award, as must Davies, who notched his eighth try at his third World Cup to become the highest try scoring scrum half in the tournament’s history.
Morgan made the break for Davies’ try, grabbed one of his own at the death to join Louis Rees-Zammit as Wales top try scorer at the 2023 tournament with two, led the way with a game high 16 tackles and also bagged a remarkable 50-22. Not a bad night’s work!
It was gutting watching Dan Biggar go off but Gareth Anscombe has put in a fantastic performance for Wales tonight.
— Jordan (@JordanWebber96) September 24, 2023
“Words can’t really explain how proud I am for us to put in a performance like that. It’s been a tough couple of months, and we’ve worked really hard, so that was massive for us,” said Morgan.
“Over the last couple of games, we’ve played really well in certain areas, but today our discipline was much better, which meant we weren’t put under as much pressure. The crowd was amazing, it’s fantastic to see all that red in the crowd.”
Today's rugby news as Dan Biggar injury fate revealed and Wales captain lost for words https://t.co/tFOXTsOcFi
— WalesOnline Rugby (@WalesRugby) September 25, 2023
