Howley hails Welsh spirit

Jamie Roberts' willingness to play 10 minutes of the first half with a fractured skull typified the bravery shown by Wales in Saturday's thrilling victory over Australia, according to Wales backs coach Rob Howley.

The Blues centre was involved in a sickening collision with Australia captain Stirling Mortlock in the opening exchanges, and Roberts carried on and played a part in the build up to Wales's first try. But after 12 minutes Roberts withdrew from the contest and coach Warren Gatland claimed the fracture to his skull will keep him out for a minimum of six weeks.

"Jamie has sent us a text from hospital telling us he has a fractured skull in hospital," revealed Howley after the 21-18 win. "That just sums up the team spirit - a guy is in hospital but sends a text message to the players who he has been playing with for the past three weeks."

He added: "I think that is a testimony to the squad and the team spirit that Warren has achieved over the last three weeks."

Gatland was delighted with much of the display but admitted that the result was all important.

"We are pretty pleased. Someone had to carry the flag for the northern hemisphere, didn't they?" said Gatland.

"I think the result for us was the most important thing. We needed to get the win. I'm pretty proud of the performance and I think the best team won.

"The great rugby we played in the first half, I thought we should have been further in front.

"We get two, what I would consider, relatively easy shots at goal, which we miss and those things hurt a tight five.

"You need to keep the momentum up and we didn't do that and we had to grind it out in the end."