Kangaroos Tour 1994 Series

Game 8

Wales 4 lost to Australia 46

Kangaroos Tour 1994

Wales
4
46
Australia
Match Info
Match URL www.rugbyleagueproject.org/matches/14978
Status Completed
Date Sunday, 30th October, 1994
Referee John Connolly (Wigan)
Venue Ninian Park (Cardiff)
Crowd 8,729
Match Stats
Halftime Score 0 30
Scrums 12 11
Penalties 10 6
Wales Scoresheet Australia
Daio POWELL T 2 Steve RENOUF
      Brad FITTLER
      Greg FLORIMO
      David FURNER
      Mal MENINGA
      Brett MULLINS
      Rod WISHART
 
    G 7 Rod WISHART
 
Kevin ELLIS BIN David FAIRLEIGH
Phil FORD   Paul SIRONEN
Wales Teams Australia
Phil FORD
[Salford]
1 FB 1 Brett MULLINS
[Canberra]
Anthony SULLIVAN
[St Helens]
2 W 2 Rod WISHART
[Illawarra]
Scott GIBBS
[St Helens]
3 C 3 Mal MENINGA (c)
[Canberra]
John DEVEREUX 4 C 4 Steve RENOUF
[Brisbane]
Adrian HADLEY
[Widnes]
5 W 5 Wendell SAILOR
[Brisbane]
 
Iestyn HARRIS
[Warrington]
6 FE 6 Kevin WALTERS
[Brisbane]
Kevin ELLIS
[Workington]
7 HB 7 Allan LANGER
[Brisbane]
 
David YOUNG
[Salford]
8 FR 8 Glenn LAZARUS
[Brisbane]
Jonathan GRIFFITHS
[St Helens]
9 HK 9 Steve WALTERS
[Canberra]
Ian MARLOW
[Wakefield]
10 FR 10 Ian ROBERTS
[Manly]
Paul MORIARTY
[Halifax]
11 2R 11 Paul SIRONEN
[Balmain]
Rowland PHILLIPS
[Workington]
12 2R 12 David FURNER
[Canberra]
Mark PERRETT
[Halifax]
13 L 13 Brad FITTLER
[Penrith]
 
Gerald CORDLE
[Bradford]
14 B 14 Greg FLORIMO
[North Sydney]
Jason LEE
[Warrington]
15 B 15 David FAIRLEIGH
[North Sydney]
Richard WEBSTER
[Salford]
16 B 16 Paul HARRAGON
[Newcastle]
Daio POWELL
[Wakefield]
17 B    
 
Clive GRIFFITHS   HC   Bob FULTON
   
 

Team Info

Wales

Previous Game:
[no comp] - vs. France
Next Game:
European Championship 1994/95 - Game 1 vs. England
Out:
Allan Bateman (centre), Jonathan Davies (centre), Mark Jones (front row), Barry Williams (hooker)
In:
Scott Gibbs (centre), John Devereux (centre), Adrian Hadley (wing), Iestyn Harris (five-eighth), Jason Lee (bench)
Changes:
Gerald Cordle (wing to bench), Kevin Ellis (five-eighth to halfback), Jonathan Griffiths (halfback to hooker), Ian Marlow (bench to front row)

Australia

Previous Game:
Kangaroos Tour 1994 - Game 7 vs. Sheffield
Next Game:
Kangaroos Tour 1994 - Game 9 vs. St Helens
Out:
Tim Brasher (wing), Paul McGregor (centre), Terry Hill (centre), Ricky Stuart (halfback), Dean Pay (front row), Steve Menzies (second row), Jason Smith (lock), Andrew Ettingshausen (bench)
In:
Mal Meninga (centre), Steve Renouf (centre), Allan Langer (halfback), Ian Roberts (front row), Paul Sironen (second row), David Furner (second row), Brad Fittler (lock), Paul Harragon (bench)
Changes:
David Fairleigh (second row to bench), Wendell Sailor (bench to wing)

Match Report

Like Julius Caesar two thousand years earlier, the Kangaroos came, saw and conquered on their 1994 tour of Britain, and Wales were just another obstacle to be blown away by the green and gold juggernaut.

In truth Wales were always going to be against it with their captain incapacitated after dislocating a shoulder on the way to guiding Great Britain to an historic victory over the Australians at Wembley, and a number of players showed up well in the circumstances. None were better than the debutante Iestyn Harris, the 18 year old Warrington winger having a highly promising game filling in the stand-off position vacated by Davies.

In a tough and explosive physical encounter the Australians drew first blood early with David Furner's try, and the tone for the game was set. Wales' night took a double turn for the worse with 10 minutes gone as John Devereux had his jaw egg shelled by Meninga's shoulder in the tackle and David Young left the field to have an eye gash stitched up. Though Young would return, Devereux's injury was extremely serious and the Widnes centre had to have a plate inserted to repair a bone smashed in four places.

Shortly after the combative Kevin Ellis traded blows with Paul Sironen and instigated a mass brawl with Gareth Cordle and Wendell Sailor taking a particular dislike to each other. Ellis and Sironen were yellow carded and with both sides down to 12 men Kevin Walters put Steve Renouf into a gap to increase Australia's advantage on the scoreboard. Phil Ford's sin-binning for dissent left Wales down to 11 players, and the gaps in the defence became huge.

Clive Griffiths was forced to reshuffle his backs, and switched Sullivan from the wing to fullback. He was helpless as his long striding opposite number from

Canberra Brett Mullins cruised to the line, and after Sullivan failed to control Langer's skidding kick, Rod Wishart was in for a fourth Australian try. Mal Meninga crossed in first half injury time to see Wales head for the dressing room staring at a 30-0 deficit.

The second half began more promisingly for Wales, with David Fairleigh yellow carded for an illegal challenge on Kevin Ellis. They didn't take advantage of the numerical superiority but no sooner had Fairleigh returned than Ellis put up a high kick across the Australian defence and Daio Powell dropped on the loose ball to get Wales' off the mark.

That would be the only joy they had on the scoresheet, though it must be said that their second half defence did well to restrict the Australians to three tries through Renouf, Florimo and Fittler. The Australians had enjoyed almost total possession and territory.

Steve Renouf was adjudged Man of the Match and his outstanding pace and strength had overwhelmed the Welsh defence. With the Walters brothers and Alfie Langer calling the shots from midfield, this was a truly formidable opposition, and team manager Mike Nicholas admitted "I'm happy that we stuck in there. We could have been annihilated".

Source: WalesRL.co.uk

This match is a part of the following:

Contributions: Shawn Dollin, Andrew Ferguson