Warren Gatland’s side were edged out 26-30 by the Wallabies in an absorbing Test match at the Millennium Stadium.
George North’s brace of tries kept Wales in the game but in the end, scores from Christian Leali’ifano, Israel Folau and Joe Tomane proved decisive.
Leigh Halfpenny, Dan Biggar and replacement Rhys Priestland all kicked points for Wales with Biggar yellow carded late in the first half.
A thrilling first 40 minutes had finished with the Wallabies 17-16 ahead, North’s early score eradicated by Leali’ifano and Folau. The start of the second half saw Tomane extend the lead and at one stage, Ewen McKenzie’s side led 30-14.
Wales roared back into contention though with North, who had been moved to centre, adding a superb second. It set up another thrilling finish with Wales doing all the attacking but a decisive third try failed to arrive.
Here’s what Warburton had to say at the final whistle:
“The first half went in Australia’s favour, they played very well, did well at the breakdown and were very clinical in attack.
“In the period with the sin bin we perhaps didn’t quite keep the ball as tight as we should have and we lost a bit of possession there. That’s not Dan’s fault at all, he saved a try but we should have kept the ball tighter, especially in the spell before half time.
“It was a brutal Test match which is exactly what we thought it was going to be. I never expect anything else against Australia, I always find them one of the most difficult teams to play against.
“It felt like it was 100 miles an hour and we had to work hard to slow their ball down. The second half went much better for us, we addressed those scenarios and came out much better after half time.
“It was a great Test match to be involved in, one of the toughest ones we’ll play in.
“It’s not what we wanted. Three (wins) out of four was our target and we’ve fallen short. It’s disappointing but we have to look forward to the Six Nations campaign.
“There’s still a lot of good stuff we can take out of that but we’re still desperately looking for that win against a southern hemisphere side.
“We’ve played Australia eight times now and haven’t had a win so people can rightly call them favourites. You don’t lose eight times by being unlucky, there’s obviously some kind of common denominator there.
“It’s extremely close but they’re a tiny bit in front of us at the moment and we need to keep working hard till we can get a win over these sides.”
