A hat-trick by Macs Page proved in vain as Australia won the 5th-place semi-final of the U20 World Championship with a 36-29 victory against Wales on a heavy Danie Craven pitch in Stellenbosch.
Page went over for three of the five tries Wales scored but it wasn’t enough as the fleet footed Junior Wallabies raced over for five of their own to march into the 5th-place final where they will face Argentina while Richard Whiffin’s side will now face South Africa in the battle for seventh position.
Wales gave a good account of themselves and were leading 12-7 when a yellow card to scrum half Rhodri Lewis swung the pendulum in Australia’s favour.
In his absence, Australia jumped out to a 24-12 lead at the break which ultimately proved the difference as Wales were then made to play catch-up in an evenly contested affair.
The game began brightly for Wales with hooker Isaac Young ploughing over to put his side on the board.
But a basic error put the Junior Wallabies on attack and eventually Harvey Corducks scored.
Page scored the first of his tries when collecting a kind bounce and putting on the afterburners to scamper 50m to score unopposed. Harry Wilde’s conversion put Wales 12-7 ahead.
But then Lewis was sent to the naughty boys step and Kadin Pritchard and winger Archie Saunders picked up tries before Harry McLaughlin-Phillips stretched the lead to 24-12 just before halftime.
Toby MacPherson put Australia 29-12 ahead before a rearguard action from Wales saw them claw their way back into the game.
Matty Young squeeze in at the corner after Aidan Boshoff offloaded in the tackle to make it 29-17.
Chasing the game, Wales made crucial errors with forward passes or poor tactical kicking putting them under pressure as time began to run out.
Scrum half Dan Nelson was on hand to finish off another sweeping move as the Junior Wallabies cruised to 36-17.
But Wales kept plugging away and Page was the recipient of a great kick pass from Ford to reduce the arrears to 36-22.
The centre linked up well when Louie Hennessey put Page over for his hat-trick and Ford’s conversion brought it to within a seven-point game.
Back on a knife-edge with eight minutes left, Australia were able to keep Wales at bay at the boys in red threw everything at their opposition but they run out of time as they sought a sixth try to take the game into extra time.
