Gareth Anscombe helps Wales sail into quarter-finals after easy Australia win

Warren Gatland has enjoyed some big wins with Wales over the years but few more satisfying than this. His team are bound for the quarter-finals and behind him, choking in their dust, is a stricken Australian team who are now all but doomed to a premature tournament exit. Eddie Jones, on the other hand, is seeing all his worst nightmares come true.

When Jones was rehired in January at vast expense, having lost his job with England, it was not supposed to end like this. If defeat to Fiji was bad, this was far worse as his side barely fired a shot. If the 63-year-old was meant to breathe fresh life into the Wallaby squad, it has had the exact opposite effect. Compared with the glory days of Australian rugby it was almost embarrassing at times, with boos ringing around the stadium whenever Jones appeared on the big screen. Wales, though, still had to seal the deal and duly did so through tries from Gareth Davies, Nick Tompkins and Jac Morgan and the boot of Gareth Anscombe, on as an early replacement for the injured Dan Biggar.

By the end Anscombe had racked up 23 points on his own and Wales were out of sight. Morgan’s late score, driven over by his pack, was the clearest possible sign of Welsh supremacy and Gatland, his staff and his players deserve huge credit for delivering a result that puts them on course for a quarter-final against, potentially, Argentina.

It would now be staggering, however, if Jones survives beyond this World Cup and neither he nor his outclassed team could have any complaints about this outcome. Wales did not have to play remotely like world-beaters to defeat opponents who looked resigned to their fate from an early stage.

Not everything can be laid at Jones’s door but it was his decision to axe experienced campaigners such as Michael Hooper and Quade Cooper and pick a more youthful squad. It has been a transparent flop and the treatment of his young playmaker Carter Gordon, picked as the first-choice fly-half only to be summarily discarded, perfectly sums up the uncertainty that has now taken hold in the Australian dressing room. Wallaby fans, and Jones’ employers, are fully entitled to ask some serious, pointed questions.

The tense, frantic nature of the first half was hardly a surprise. The quality was a couple of levels below the stunning Ireland v South Africa game on Saturday night but nerves were clearly jangling. The possibility of the Wallabies, in particular, not making it out of their pool for the first time in their World Cup history was always set to make this a test of everyone’s composure. Australia is a vast land but even in the dustiest, most remote corner of the outback it is common knowledge that Jones was brought back by Rugby Australia for his big tournament expertise and motivational ability. In many ways, this was exactly the occasion they had in mind.

Then again, Gatland has also been around the block. Adam Beard, winning his 50th cap, rose high to claim the opening kick-off and there was a composed air about almost everything Wales did initially. The game’s first lineout certainly went to plan, a slick first-phase move straight off the training ground releasing Jac Morgan down the middle of the field and setting up the pacy scrum-half Davies for his latest high-profile World Cup score.

It was the worst possible start for Australia. Their games against Wales have invariably been close on the scoreboard and they did not want to spend a clear, still night playing catchup. The fates were about to intervene, however, with the influential Biggar forced out of the contest after just 12 minutes with a sore shoulder. The red-shirted sections of the crowd fell momentarily silent as they pondered the potential implications. Two Donaldson penalties offered the Wallabies further encouragement and when Anscombe hit a post with a straightforward penalty attempt it did little to dispel Welsh jitters. It was a relief for all concerned, therefore, when the fly-half slotted a harder kick on the angle to put his side 10-6 ahead at the start of the second quarter.

Australia did have some joy in the scrums but, as the pace of the game dropped, Wales quietly continued to build scoreboard pressure. Anscombe landed a third penalty just before the half-hour mark and when Rob Valetini dived on a ball that referee Wayne Barnes ruled had not fully emerged from a ruck the gap widened further. Louis Rees-Zammit nearly extended the 16-6 lead before being held up over the Australian line but Wales were still very much in the box seat at the interval.

Any doubt about the outcome pretty much evaporated in the third quarter as Wallaby confidence ebbed away completely. Anscombe clipped over another penalty and then created a 49th-minute try for the alert Tompkins with a little chip over the top. Anscombe’s fifth penalty three minutes later tightened the screw even further.

It was turning into an unmitigated disaster as yet more Australian ill-discipline offered Anscombe yet more ammunition. No wonder Jones has apparently been talking to Japanese officials on the quiet. After this his days as Wallaby coach are surely numbered. And England’s decision to part company with him before Christmas last year looks a better decision by the day.