- Title: "Squad effort was huge," says North after Wales beat Australia
- Date: 29th September 2019
- Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (SEPTEMBER 29, 2019) (AGENCY POOL) (SOUNDBITE) (English) RHYS PATCHELL, WALES REPLACEMENT FLY-HALF SPEAKING ABOUT REPLACING DAN BIGGAR, SAYING: "It's the job, isn't it? You're paid to play rugby and thankfully tonight it went right. As you say, the team performance was excellent. We talked all week, we needed an edge. Brought a bit of an edge in the contact area, worked hard off the ball. Brought some good line speed, I felt, and everybody's contributed to that tonight, and we're all delighted in the changing room, but very much aware that two from two (two wins from two games) doesn't really count for much in nine days' time (when Wales face Fiji) unless we pull out another victory. So we'll rest, recover, have a look at this and prep, thoroughly for Fiji, because we know how dangerous a side they can be." (SOUNDBITE) (English) WALES WINGER, GEORGE NORTH, SPEAKING ABOUT MAN OF THE MATCH GARETH DAVIES, SAYING: "To be fair he was on fire. I think man of the match sums it up really. His work in the loose and in the field was brilliant. I think obviously a big rap to him, but the squad effort today was huge. The bench coming on, the prep from the week from one to 31 has been huge. So from our point of view we're chuffed with that performance and I'm sure there's plenty the boss (Warren Gatland) will want to work on and too right as well. So we push forward to Fiji now." (SOUNDBITE) (English) AUSTRALIA FULL-BACK, DANE HAYLETT-PETTY, SPEAKING ABOUT WHAT WAS SAID AT HALF TIME TO INSPIRE AUSTRALIA'S SECOND HALF PERFORMANCE, SAYING: "I don't think we needed to say too much. We hadn't really played that much footie (rugby) in the first half. We got trapped in our own half with very little ball and the couple of opportunities we had, we made breaks, created opportunities and scored one (try). So, we knew we hadn't really had any ball yet and we knew at some point the momentum was going to swing and, so we just focused on trying play the style we wanted to play and we were able to do that in the second half and, just probably left ourselves a little bit too much to do." (SOUNDBITE) (English) AUSTRALIA REPLACEMENT FLY-HALF, MATT TO'OMUA, SPEAKING ABOUT IF HE MADE A CLAIM FOR THE STARTING FLY-HALF POSITION, SAYING: "Yeah, look, I hope so. It's one of those things, you just do it as best as you can for the team, whether it be starting on the bench. But look, everyone wants to start. I'm no different, of course I want to start and we'll see where the goes from here. It's a long old comp(etition). We're only two games into it, so there's a good five left. So a lot can happen, so we'll see how it goes."
- Embargoed: 13th October 2019 14:11
- Keywords: Rugby World Cup Wales Australia
- Location: TOKYO, JAPAN
- City: TOKYO, JAPAN
- Country: Japan
- Topics: Rugby Union,Sport
- Reuters ID: LVA001AYPLLBZ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Wales withstood a furious Australian comeback to secure a 29-25 win in an epic Pool D encounter in Tokyo on Sunday (September 29) to record their first win over the Wallabies at the Rugby World Cup since 1987 and take a major step towards the quarter-finals.
In 80 minutes of gripping drama at Tokyo Stadium, the Six Nations champions built up a 26-8 lead soon after halftime after tries from Hadleigh Parkes and Gareth Davies and drop goals from Dan Biggar and his fly-half replacement Rhys Patchell.
Australia, fired by their replacement fly-half Matt To'omua, hit back with second-half tries from Dane Haylett-Petty and captain Michael Hooper and came within a point at 26-25 late in the match.
The Welsh held on, though, and Patchell, who contributed 14 points from the boot, steered them home to only a second win in their last 15 matches against Australia and potentially an easier path through the knockout stages.
(Production: Annette Faydenko) - Copyright Holder: POOL (CAN SELL)
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