2024 Wales rugby union tour of Australia

The Wales national rugby union team toured Australia in July 2024 as part of the 2024 mid-year rugby union tests. The first test against the Australia national team was played on 6 July at the new Sydney Football Stadium in Sydney, New South Wales, with the second test following a week later at the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium in Melbourne, Victoria.^[1] A pre-tour match against South Africa on 22 June was announced in February 2024; the match will be played at Twickenham Stadium in London due to a clash with concerts by Taylor Swift and the Foo Fighters at the Millennium Stadium either side of the match.^[2]

After the two tests, Wales also played a tour match against the Queensland Reds at Lang Park in Brisbane.^[3]

It is Wales' first tour since touring South Africa in 2022 and their first tour of Australia since 2012.^[1] Their match against Queensland will be their first since 1991.^[4]

The two teams named their line-ups for this game on 18 June. South Africa were missing their usual captain Siya Kolisi as well as the rest of their Europe-based players, so Pieter-Steph du Toit led the team. They were also without the Bulls players who had reached the final of the 2023–24 United Rugby Championship play-offs, resulting in debut starts for fly-half Jordan Hendrikse and wing Edwill van der Merwe, while uncapped lock Ben-Jason Dixon and utility back Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu were named on the bench. Prop Vincent Koch was named in the starting line-up to earn his 50th cap. For Wales, flanker Jac Morgan, who had co-captained the team with Dewi Lake at the 2023 Rugby World Cup, was ruled out of the tour with a hamstring injury, so Lake was named as captain, while James Botham filled in for Morgan in the back row after only being called up to the squad the day before. Lock James Ratti was also called up due to the unavailability of Cory Hill and named on the bench.^[5] New Scarlets signing Henry Thomas was named to start the match, but pulled out on 20 June with a foot injury; Keiron Assiratti was promoted from the bench to replace him among the starters, while Scarlets teammate Harri O'Connor came onto the bench.^[6]

South Africa opened the scoring early in the match as centre Jesse Kriel crossed for a try in the opening five minutes, converted by Hendrikse. Sam Costelow responded with a penalty for Wales, but they were soon reduced to 13 men as Rio Dyer and Aaron Wainwright were both sin-binned in the first quarter-hour, the latter offence resulting in a penalty try. Costelow missed the opportunity to close the gap further with another penalty shortly after, while Ellis Bevan fumbled a chance at a debut try following an interception by Liam Williams. After Dyer and Wainwright's return to the field, Wales took the numerical advantage as the game reached the half-hour mark, as Aphelele Fassi was shown a yellow card for a high boot on Taine Plumtree. They capitalised immediately as Dewi Lake claimed a loose ball and made his way over the line for a try, which Costelow converted before adding a penalty to reduce the deficit to a single point at half-time.

The first score of the second half came even quicker than in the first, as Makazole Mapimpi capitalised on a potential missed forward pass by the referee to cross for another converted try. Hendrikse then kicked South Africa's first penalty of the game to make it 24–13 with less than 10 minutes of the half gone. After a quiet next 15 minutes, South Africa put the seal on the win in the final quarter-hour, as Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu kicked a penalty from inside his own half before converting tries by Bongi Mbonambi and Edwill van der Merwe, who was named player of the match.^[7]

Wales named their squad for the game on 3 July, making six changes from the team that faced South Africa two weeks earlier. In the forwards, prop Archie Griffin was given a first start for Wales in the city where he was born, while locks Christ Tshiunza and Dafydd Jenkins, and flanker Tommy Reffell also came in, all four having been unavailable against South Africa, replacing Keiron Assiratti, Matthew Screech, Ben Carter and James Botham, of whom only Botham made the bench to face Australia; in the backs, Josh Hathaway was named to make his debut, replacing Cameron Winnett in the back three with Liam Williams moving to full-back, while Ben Thomas replaced Sam Costelow at fly-half. Aaron Wainwright was named at number 8 to earn his 50th cap for Wales. Meanwhile, Australia named two debutants in their starting line-up – centre Josh Flook and lock Jeremy Williams – and a further five on the bench, Angus Blyth, Charlie Cale, Isaac Kailea, Tom Lynagh, Dylan Pietsch, while flanker Liam Wright captained the side for the first time.^[10]

Wales opened the scoring in the third minute of the match with a penalty from Ben Thomas, but Noah Lolesio levelled the scores for Australia a few minutes later, before putting them in front with another place-kick as the game hit the quarter-hour mark. Taniela Tupou scored the game's opening try five minutes later, while Gareth Thomas was sin-binned for an offence in the build-up; Lolesio converted the try to put Australia 13–3 up. Despite the numerical disadvantage, Wales continued to apply pressure, and shortly after Rio Dyer was denied a try for a knock-on, referee Pierre Brousset awarded them a penalty try after Australia collapsed a maul, resulting in a yellow card for flanker Fraser McReight.

That meant Wales went into half-time trailing by just three points, and just over five minutes past the break, Ben Thomas drew them level with his second penalty of the game; however, just six minutes later, Filipo Daugunu took advantage of a turnover from a Wales line-out to cross for his third international try, his first since Australia's 29–28 loss to Wales in Cardiff in 2021. A few minutes later, Botham came on for Wales and thought he had scored with his first touch, driving over from a line-out, only for the try to be ruled out for obstruction after the maul splintered. Ben Thomas was able to reduce the gap to two points as the match entered its final 15 minutes, but a solo try from Tom Wright ultimately sealed the win for Australia, as Tom Lynagh scored his first points in international rugby with the conversion. The defeat was Wales's eighth in a row, their longest losing streak since 2013, and saw them drop to 11th place in the World Rugby Rankings, their lowest ever position.^[11]

Wales named their squad for the second test on 11 July; they made two changes from the first test, bringing full-back Cameron Winnett and flanker James Botham into the starting line-up in place of the injured Josh Hathaway and Aaron Wainwright; they also made two positional changes, as Liam Williams moved from full-back to the right wing, while Taine Plumtree moved to number 8 from the blindside flank. Australia made just one change to their team, also enforced by injury, as Charlie Cale came in for captain Liam Wright; Rob Valetini moved to the blindside flank to accommodate Cale at number 8, and James Slipper took over from Wright as captain. Uncapped hooker Josh Nasser was named on the bench.^[15]

With this victory for Australia, they retained the James Bevan Trophy.

Wales coach Warren Gatland named a squad of 36 players for the tour on 3 June 2024, including four uncapped players in Cardiff Rugby scrum-half Ellis Bevan and full-back Jacob Beetham, Ospreys wing Keelan Giles and Gloucester wing/full-back Josh Hathaway. Also included were Japan-based lock Cory Hill and full-back Liam Williams. Cardiff wing Theo Cabango missed out on selection after suffering a hamstring injury in their Judgement Day game against the Ospreys on 1 June. Scrum-half Tomos Williams suffered an ankle injury in March 2024 and missed out on selection for a Wales test for the first time since March 2022.^[16] Uncapped Scarlets centre Eddie James was a notable omission from the original squad, but he was added to the squad on 6 June.^[17] Cardiff flanker James Botham was added to the squad on 17 June.^[18] Uncapped Ospreys lock James Ratti was added to the squad on 18 June due to the unavailability of Hill for the South Africa test.^[5] Bath wing Regan Grace was called up to replace the injured Giles on 20 June.^[19] Hooker Sam Parry was a surprise withdrawal from the squad in the week of the South Africa test, having left the training camp after being told by Gatland that he was only going to be considered as cover for the other three hookers; Cardiff's Efan Daniel was called up in his place.^[20] The travelling squad for the tour to Australia was announced on 24 June, with Keiron Assiratti, Elliot Dee and Henry Thomas as the omissions; Daniel, Grace and Hathaway were included.^[21]

Caps and ages are as of 22 June 2024, the day of the first match of the tour.^[22]

Australia named a 38-man squad for their tests against Wales and Georgia on 21 June 2024, including 13 uncapped players and 35-year-old fly-half Kurtley Beale, who had not played for Australia since their 29–28 loss to Wales in November 2021;^[23][24] however, Beale suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon in a club match for Randwick against Eastern Suburbs and was ruled out of the series. Uncapped centre David Feliuai was ruled out of the first test for personal reasons, and uncapped Waratahs centre Joey Walton was called up in his place.^[25]

Caps and ages are as of 6 July 2024, the day of the first test between Australia and Wales.^[26]

• 2024 mid-year rugby union tests
• 2024 England rugby union tour of New Zealand
• 2024 France rugby union tour of Argentina and Uruguay
• 2024 Ireland rugby union tour of South Africa