Wallabies edge past Barbarians

Australia won Olympic gold at the White City Stadium 100 years ago with a 32-3 victory over Great Britain, who were represented at the Games by county champions Cornwall.

Australia scored six tries that day. There were only two on this occasion but it was enough for the Wallabies to mark the occasion with victory against a Barbarians side who broke with tradition to wear black and yellow Cornwall socks.

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 players from their World Cup-winning side, including captain John Smit and winger Bryan Habana plus All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw.

Former All Blacks flanker Jerry Collins, who last year turned out for the Barnstaple 2nd XV, provided his own tribute to the clash 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, who had opened a 13-0 lead during the first-half with a try from Lote Tuqiri, ensured their six-match tour ended on a victorious note when replacement winger Lachlan Turner scored two minutes from time.

Turner went over after a swift breakaway to enable captain and man of the match George Smith to lift the cup.