Scarlets centre Macs Page crossed for an outstanding hat-trick of tries, but it wasn’t enough to guide Wales to victory over Australia, who clinched a 36-29 victory in the U20 World Championship 5th-place semi-final in Stellenbosch.
Page made his United Rugby Championship debut in Scarlets colours at the end of last season and the Pembrokeshire youngster underlined his talent on the global stage with a scintillating display for Richard Whiffin’s side,
Page went over for three of the five tries Wales scored but it wasn’t enough as the fleet-footed Junior Wallabies raced over for five of their own to march into the 5th-place final where they will face Argentina while Wales will now take on hosts South Africa in the battle for seventh position.
The game began brightly for Wales with Scarlets hooker Isaac Young ploughing over from a powerful line-out drive to put his side on the board.
But a basic error put the Junior Wallabies on attack and eventually Harvey Corducks scored.
Page scored the first of his tries when collecting a kind bounce and putting on the afterburners to scamper 50 metres to score unopposed. Harry Wilde’s conversion put Wales 12-7 ahead.
But then new Scarlets scrum-half Rhodri Lewis was yellow carded and Kadin Pritchard and winger Archie Saunders picked up tries before Harry McLaughlin-Phillips stretched the lead to 24-12 just before half-time.
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Toby MacPherson put Australia 29-12 ahead before a rearguard action from Wales saw them claw their way back into the game.
Matty Young squeezed in at the corner after Aidan Boshoff offloaded in the tackle to make it 29-17.
Chasing the game, Wales made crucial errors with forward passes or poor tactical kicking putting them under pressure as time began to run out.
Scrum half Dan Nelson was on hand to finish off another sweeping move as the Junior Wallabies cruised to 36-17.
But Wales kept plugging away and Page was the recipient of a great kick pass from Ford to reduce the arrears to 36-22.
The centre linked up well when Louie Hennessey put Page over for his hat-trick and Ford’s conversion brought it to within a seven-point game.
Back on a knife-edge with eight minutes left, Australia were able to keep Wales at bay as the boys in red threw everything at their opposition but they ran out of time as they sought a sixth try to take the game into extra time.
Scarlets hooker Harry Thomas and scrum-half Lucca Setaro also featured in the second half.