Rugby World Cup 2019: Tokyo triumph fuels Wales title dreams

Wales overcame plenty of their own adversity. They lost Biggar whose brave but poor technical tackle on Australia giant Kerevi resulted in the Wales fly-half stopping a try but failing a head injury assessment.

Patchell has suffered concussions of his own in the last two years but his level-headed composed performance belied his relative international inexperience.

Other new heroes emerged. Dragons back-rower Aaron Wainwright set the tone with a counter-rucking turnover from the kick-off. Against Hooper and David Pocock, the 22-year-old tackled everything in green and gold and ran like a banshee for the 49 minutes he was on the field.

There was also a notable late intervention from replacement scrum-half Tomos Williams when he acrobatically kept a Matt Toomua kick to touch in play in the final minutes in the Welsh 22. Small moments, huge implications.

Williams had come on for man-of-the-match Gareth Davies. How that Wales scrum-half loves World Cups.

Davies scored the decisive try against England in Twickenham four years ago and here showed jet-heeled speed to pick off Will Genia’s pass and sprint away to score.

His pace off the mark even made former Australia centre Stirling Mortlock question whether the Wales scrum-half was offside.