04/12/2008 8:48 AM
Australia celebrated the centenary of its 1908 Olympic gold medal with an 18-11 victory over the Barbarians at Wembley Stadium on Thursday morning (AEDT).
Australia won Olympic gold at the White City Stadium 100 years ago with a 32-3 victory over Great Britain, which was represented at the Games by county champions Cornwall.
Australia scored six tries that day. There were only two in this game but it was enough for the Wallabies to mark the occasion with victory against a Barbarians side which broke with tradition to wear black and yellow Cornwall socks.
Former All Blacks flanker Jerry Collins, who last year turned out for the Barnstaple 2nd XV, provided his own tribute by dying his hair yellow.
Collins profited from a dazzling Shane Williams run to score the Barbarians' second-half try that drew the scores back to 13-11 and set up a dramatic late finish.
The Barbarians could have snatched the win had fly-half Francois Steyn not missed the conversion and a simple late penalty.
But Australia, which had opened a 13-0 lead during the first half with a try from Lote Tuqiri, ensured its six-match tour ended on a victorious note when replacement winger Lachlan Turner scored two minutes from time.
Despite plunging temperatures, the 50,000-plus Wembley crowd would have been significantly bigger than the attendance for that 1908 final, which was played on a foggy October day.
The Barbarians may have been at Wembley to represent Britain, but the starting XV had a strong South African flavour with seven World Cup-winning side, including captain John Smit and winger Bryan Habana plus All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw.
Habana created the first try-scoring opportunity of the evening, with a break through the middle and chip over advancing Australian full-back James O'Connor.
Tuqiri, making his first appearance of the tour after recovering from a knee injury, covered well to keep out McCaw - and then finished a brilliant Ryan Cross break to score at the other end.
Cross attacked from deep in his own half, slicing through the Barbarians defence before chipping ahead for Tuqiri to mark his comeback from a knee injury with a try by the posts.
O'Connor, who became Australia's second youngest international in the Wallabies' win over Italy last month, converted the try and then stretched the lead to 13-0 with two penalties.
Just to prove this was no jolly, Italian prop Federico Pucciariello and Australian fly-half Quade Cooper careered through the advertising hoardings as they came to blows.
Percy Montgomery landed two penalties to put the Barbarians on the scoreboard before being replaced by the Welsh winger and world player of the year Shane Williams at the interval.
The second half began with Australian props Matt Dunning and Sekope Kepu both being replaced injured after the Barbarians demolished a Wallaby scrum.
Williams scored in Wales' 21-18 victory over Australia in Cardiff on Saturday and he brought the crowd to its feet every time he got the ball.
And when O'Connor scuffed a clearance from his own line, Williams was on hand to punish the Wallabies again.
The Welsh wizard burst down the left wing and attracted three covering defenders before he popped the inside pass for Collins to barrel over for the try.
Steyn missed the conversion and then a simple penalty with eight minutes remaining, which would have nudged the Barbarians ahead.
And the Wallabies sealed the Cornwall Cup, which was lifted by captain and man of the match George Smith, when Turner scored a breakaway try two minutes from time.