Try brings dream end for Williams

Shane Williams admitted his last-gasp try against Australia had been a dream end to his international career, but was left with mixed emotions as Wales fell to a 24-18 Millennium Stadium defeat in his 87th and final Test.

The 34-year-old winger extended his Welsh try-scoring record to 58 when he weaved his way between Berrick Barnes and Digby Ioane to touch down in added time and send the crowd into rapture. But the score came too late to recover a result for the hosts, who paid the price for shipping 21 points during the 10-minute second half period when full-back Leigh Halfpenny was in the sin-bin.

And Williams said: "Of course there are mixed emotions, the whole point of the game was to win. It couldn't have finished any better for me to score a try, but obviously there are mixed emotions, it's nice to score tries but it is even better when you are winning."

He added: "It was not about me it was about getting a Welsh performance and beating Australia.

"It didn't happen so on that side it is a bit disappointing but I cannot commend the guys' effort enough. It was a tough game, we played a very good Australia side that had the majority of the ball, we did our damnedest out there and I'm very proud of that."

With time running out and Australia closing out an ultimately comfortable win, the Ospreys flier admitted he thought his chance of a fairytale try had been lost.

He said: "I thought my opportunity had gone, I thought we had an overlap on the right where we chucked it up in midfield and we were given a penalty and I thought that was it, my chance had gone.

"But luckily I was on the end of a very good pass that took me outside Barnes and inside Ioane and I managed to get to the line again.

"I couldn't have scripted the last minute of that game any better but it would have been nice to have gone out in style and won the game."