However, unlike the opening weekend in Dubai where Wales weren’t at the races against England and Australia before finishing the day with a victory over Kenya, Luke Treharne and his men took the game to both in-form USA and Australia and were just edged out by one converted score in both games.
In the opening game of the day, tries by Chris Knight and Treharne left the clash against USA on a knife-edge at the break with the score tied 12-12.
In a titanic struggle the Americans hit back after the break but Sam Cross dived over to level the scores again before canny operator Zack Test sealed ta 26-19 win for USA.
Australia romped to a comfortable 43-0 win over Wales last week in the desert but in Cape Town they came across a much different Welsh side.
Even though Australia hit the lead, Wales refused to buckle and Knight stepped out of a tackle and rand 60m to score a well taken try to leave the match even balanced 7-7 at the break.
Ethan Davies off-loaded to Treharne who dotted down under the posts to put Wales in front just after the break but speedster Greg Jeloudev sped down the wing to leave the match evenly poised again. With time running out, Australia secured the honours when they worked Henry Hutchison clear who cantered over to snatch a 21-14 victory.
For the second week running, Wales completed pool play with a convincing win, this time over Portugal. A penalty try and touchdowns by Kristian Phillips and Ethan Davies put Wales in control at 21-0.
Wales continued to dominate after halftime with Cross scoring his second try of the day before Phillips completed his hat-trick to send Wales through to tomorrow’s Bowl competition in a much better frame of mind with a 40-5 triumph.
