Australia claimed a 20-19 victory over Wales yesterday to complete a hard-fought 3-0 test series victory in which only 11 points separated the teams.

Tries to Australia center Rob Horne and Wales No.8 Ryan Jones were the only bright spots in an otherwise tepid performance by both teams in front of a capacity crowd of 42,889.

The Wallabies took the opening test 27-19 in Brisbane and the second test 25-23 in Melbourne last week to ensure they won the James Bevan trophy.

Yesterday’s match was often punctuated by South African referee Craig Joubert’s whistle, with both teams struggling to stem the tide of ill discipline and errors despite clear, dry conditions.

Man-of-the-match Berrick Barnes kicked five penalties for the home team, while Leigh Halfpenny scored 14 points for the Six Nations champions.

After entertaining encounters in the first two tests in Brisbane and Melbourne, the third test failed to reach the same heights. But Australia coach Robbie Deans hailed his team’s effort.

“I think it showed the desperation of both teams, the Welsh wanted to win and we wanted to finish off with a clean sweep,” Deans said. “Credit to these blokes, they got up and got the win in the end. Considering how much was happening off the ball, I think these guys did a good job; we showed composure at the end and I think that will service us well going forward.”

Scotland get late

winner to edge Samoa

Scotland’s Greig Laidlaw converted a try by debuting flanker Rob Harley a minute from fulltime to give the visitors a 17-16 win over Samoa yesterday and a clean sweep of matches on their southern hemisphere tour.