TOKYO (AP) — Just minutes into the second half, the scoreboard defied belief to read WALES 26, AUSTRALIA 8, and deliriously happy Welsh fans broke out singing "How Great Thou Art."
Wales was playing great, indeed, in a packed and sticky Tokyo Stadium on Sunday, but it never pays to count Australia down and out.
Not with 36 minutes to go in a Rugby World Cup match, and not when 11 of the last 12 of these Wales-Wallabies contests have been heart-thumpingly close. In a mere pool match giving off all the intensity of a playoff, Australia came back hard, and another classic ensued.
Two converted tries and a penalty later, and Wales' lead was slashed from 18 points to just one with 12 minutes to go. Nobody was singing anymore.
Wales stopped the spree with a penalty to star replacement flyhalf Rhys Patchell in the 72nd minute. Of course, the Wallabies' comeback was far from done.
Several floodlights blew out to add to the pulsating drama, but in the faded light the Wallabies bent the Welsh defense but couldn't break it.
A knock-on at the Welsh 22 with seconds left finally settled the result on 29-25, and Wales celebrated beating the Wallabies in the Rugby World Cup for the first time in 28 years, and earned the inside track for winning their pool.
"These encounters usually bring out the best in both teams," Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones said. "We gave it everything."
Wales lost five straight World Cup matches to the Wallabies, including a quarterfinal and two pool deciders, and ended the streak with a clinical performance.
"It means the destiny of the pool is in our hands," Wales coach Warren Gatland said. He added he wasn't taking Fiji and Uruguay lightly, either.
Wales, the Six Nations champion, hit the ground running. Wallabies captain Michael Hooper received the kickoff and was mauled over by Wales, and Dan Biggar slotted a dropped goal after just 40 seconds. The game was back and forth but not as clean again for another 13 minutes, when Wales used a scrum penalty and an advantage to get position for Biggar to crosskick to the right corner, where center Hadleigh Parkes leaped over Australia winger Marika Koroibete to score.
Biggar converted for 10-0, but Koroibete came firing back with a surge down the left touch line that twisted up the defense for Bernard Foley to crosskick to the right, where Adam Ashley-Cooper took the catch, slipped, and still had time to dive over untouched. The tension caused Wallabies coach Michael Cheika to stand and punch the air.
Koroibete was just warming up. Another break down the left saw him heading for the tryline until Biggar hurled himself at the winger and knocked the ball loose.