CARDIFF, Wales (AP) — Australia condemned Wales to the worst losing run in its 143-year rugby history after a record 52-20 win under the Principality Stadium roof on Sunday.
Wales lost an unprecedented 11th consecutive test, dating to the Rugby World Cup quarterfinals 13 months ago.
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Australia's Will Skelton, center , is blocked by Wales' Christ Tshiunza, right and Wales' Gareth Anscombe during the Autumn Nations series rugby union match between Wales and Australia at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024.(AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
Wales' Rhodi Williams kicks the ball to clear during the Autumn Nations series rugby union match between Wales and Australia at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024.(AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
Australia's Noah Lolesio kicks a penalty during the Autumn Nations series rugby union match between Wales and Australia at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024.(AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
Australia's Tom Wright scores a try during the Autumn Nations series rugby union match between Wales and Australia at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024.(AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
Australia's Len Ikitau scores a try during the Autumn Nations series rugby union match between Wales and Australia at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024.(AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
The Wallabies are responsible for three of those defeats after July wins in Sydney and Melbourne. On Sunday, they scored their most points against Wales in Cardiff — they'd never passed 39 — and their most against Wales in 28 years.
Coming off the stunner against England, the Wallabies also are perfect halfway through their 40th anniversary grand slam tour, with Scotland and Ireland to come.
The victory by eight tries to two saw Australia zoom to 19-0, a Wales fightback by halftime, then Australia retake control while its center Samu Kerevi was off the field for a 20-minute red card in his 50th test.
Matt Faessler became the first Australia hooker to score a hat trick of tries, and man-of-the-match fullback Tom Wright matched his three in the final minute. Noah Lolesio converted six.
“That was an awesome 80-minute performance,” Wright told broadcaster TNT Sports. “Those are games you like to be a part of.”
The Wallabies were too clever and confident for a younger, rebuilding Wales. Bigger too. The Wallabies constantly got over the gain-line and were clinical.
After Kerevi's illegal head contact on Jac Morgan reduced Australia to 14 men, Wales, trailing 19-13, thought it had a sniff. But the Wallabies pack moved them out of sight on the scoreboard by engineering two converted tries in 10 minutes for Faessler. His hat trick was all maul tries.
Wales tried to regain the initiative by changing the front row, but it also replaced its best player, wing Tom Rogers.
And before Australia returned to 15 when Kerevi was replaced by rookie sensation Joseph Su'uali'i, Wright scored a 70-meter intercept try after teammate Rob Valetini stopped Christ Tshiunza dead.
“That performance hurts,” Wales coach Warren Gatland said. "We started off not great. We conceded some points. We got back into it. (Conceding) 21 points with a man advantage, it's not often that happens.
“You can get beaten by a better team, but we've probably let ourselves down when we needed to keep a cool head. It's using that experience to review as honestly as we can so we learn from it.”
Asked about his future, Wales' most successful coach said he wanted to carry on.
“There's so much negativity around the game. Whatever the best decision is, I would support. If that means (firing) me, I'm comfortable with that,” Gatland said. "I'm only human so I ask myself if it’s the right thing to do. But I’m happy doing it."
The game petered out with more tries to Wright and Len Ikitau, interrupted by a score for Wales' Ben Thomas.
It doesn’t get any easier for Wales. World champion South Africa comes to town next weekend.
Even knowing there was more unwanted history at stake, Wales couldn't have started much worse.
It was pinned in its own half for the first four minutes. Lock Adam Beard, its most capped player, limped off. Rogers somehow held up Kerevi over the line. That was the first 10 minutes.
Now Australia was well warmed up and merciless. Slick hands finished with a Wright dummy and score. A forced turnover finished with 120-kilogram lock Nick Frost striding 50 meters to the posts. Then the pack muscled Faessler over.
After 22 minutes, Australia led 19-0 and the crowd of 56,000 was quiet.
It took an unexpected Wales scrum shove to reanimate the crowd and No. 8 Aaron Wainwright, who tore his hamstring in July in Sydney, backed over the try-line with his third touch in the scoring move.
More cheers came for two aerial catches by Rogers — playing his first test in 15 months — a penalty from Wales' superior scrum, and two penalty kicks by Gareth Anscombe.
Wales was back in the game, only 19-13 behind at halftime.
Australia was forced to start the new half with prop James Slipper — his 142nd test, tied for fourth all-time — to subdue Wales tighthead Archie Griffin. But it didn't work. It was Wales' only edge on the field.
“We feel the same as everyone does at home,” Wales captain Dewi Lake said. “We're disappointed with the run that we're on, with the result today. We train hard, we work hard to win games but we're not there yet.”
AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby
Australia's Will Skelton, center , is blocked by Wales' Christ Tshiunza, right and Wales' Gareth Anscombe during the Autumn Nations series rugby union match between Wales and Australia at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024.(AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
Wales' Rhodi Williams kicks the ball to clear during the Autumn Nations series rugby union match between Wales and Australia at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024.(AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
Australia's Noah Lolesio kicks a penalty during the Autumn Nations series rugby union match between Wales and Australia at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024.(AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
Australia's Tom Wright scores a try during the Autumn Nations series rugby union match between Wales and Australia at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024.(AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
Australia's Len Ikitau scores a try during the Autumn Nations series rugby union match between Wales and Australia at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024.(AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — The talks have taken place in the warring capitals of Moscow and Kyiv, from Washington and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to countries across Europe. Now, all eyes are finally turning to Istanbul to seek an end to Russia's 3-year-old, full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed restarting direct peace talks Thursday with Ukraine in the Turkish city that straddles Asia and Europe. And President Volodymyr Zelenskyy challenged the Kremlin leader to meet in Turkey in person.
What will unfold remains unclear. The Kremlin said its delegation at the talks will be led by Putin's aide Vladimir Medinsky and include three other officials. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Zelenskyy will only sit down with the Russian leader.
Zelenskyy said Tuesday that “if Putin does not arrive and plays games, it is the final point that he does not want to end the war."
What's known about the possible talks:
On Saturday, Zelenskyy hosted French President Emmanuel Macron, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in a show of unity. They issued a coordinated call for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine starting Monday.
The plan has received backing from the European Union and U.S. President Donald Trump, who had promised during his campaign to swiftly end the war that is now in its fourth year. The leaders pledged tougher sanctions on Russia if Putin did not accept the proposal.
In remarks to the media early Sunday, however, Putin effectively rejected the offer and proposed restarting direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul instead “without preconditions.” He did not specify whether he envisioned the talks to involve Zelenskyy and himself personally, or with lower-level officials.
Zelenskyy responded by insisting on a ceasefire, saying he will travel to Turkey — and challenged Putin to do the same: “I will be waiting for Putin in (Turkey) on Thursday. Personally. I hope that this time the Russians will not look for excuses.”
The Kremlin on Wednesday night said Putin’s aide Vladimir Medinsky will head the Russian delegation, which will also include Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin and Igor Kostyukov, chief of the General Staff’s main directorate.
Medinsky led the Russian delegation at peace talks that took place in Belarus and Turkey in the first weeks of the war in 2022.
The Kremlin's list did not include Putin himself, and the Kremlin didn’t specify whether it meant that the Russian president would not travel to Turkey in any capacity.
Trump's administration initiated separate talks with Russia and Ukraine in Saudi Arabia in March. But since then, the administration has indicated it might withdraw from the process if no tangible progress is made. Trump said Monday he was optimistic about the talks — a sharp contrast to a contentious Oval Office meeting with Zelenskyy on Feb. 28. He added he was “thinking about flying over” after his visit to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates but later said Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others from the U.S. will go to Turkey for the talks.
Podolyak on Tuesday told a YouTube broadcast by prominent Russian journalists in exile that the Ukrainian leader won't be meeting any Russian officials in Istanbul other than Putin.
He added that “there are always people” in Zelenskyy’s entourage who can “conduct certain negotiations at corresponding levels” with the Russians but questioned the point of a lower-level meeting. “Undoubtedly, only Putin can make the decision to continue the war or stop the war,” he said.
Zelenskyy said Tuesday he will meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the capital Ankara, and wait there. If the Russian leader chooses Istanbul for the meeting, Zelenskyy said, then he and Erdogan will travel there.
If Putin doesn’t show, European and U.S. leaders should follow through with additional sanctions against Russia, he added.
The Kremlin billed Thursday's talks as a “restarting” of peace negotiations in Istanbul in 2022, early on in the war, that quickly fell apart. Moscow had blamed Ukraine and the West for their alleged desire to continue fighting, while Kyiv said Russia’s demands amounted to an ultimatum rather than something the sides could mutually agree on.
Zelenskyy has said the Russian delegation’s demands included Ukraine’s recognition of Russian control over the Donbas, an area in eastern Ukraine consisting of Donetsk and Luhansk regions; constitutional amendments to declare neutrality; a significant reduction of Ukraine’s armed forces; and the surrender of long-range weaponry. “There were never any negotiations; it was an ultimatum from a murderer,” he said in 2022.
Putin accused Ukraine of derailing a peace deal that was basically agreed on and included clauses of Ukraine’s neutral and nonnuclear status and details on how much its army would be reduced. "The Kyiv authorities ... just threw it all away. They turned it down,” Putin said in 2023.
The Kremlin has said repeatedly “the Istanbul agreements” could serve as a basis for further peace talks. After Moscow illegally annexed the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in September 2022, Russian authorities started saying that Kyiv should also recognize “the reality on the ground.”
Putin last year demanded that Ukraine cede the four regions, which it still does not fully control. He also wants Kyiv to recognize the Crimean Peninsula, also illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014, as Russian; Ukraine also must renounce its bid to join NATO and drastically reduce its army. He also demanded that the West lift sanctions imposed on Moscow after the invasion.
Kyiv, in turn, refused to cede any land and wants robust security guarantees against future Russian aggression.
Trump, who has engaged in a broad diplomatic effort to end the war since taking office, has said that Crimea, “will stay with Russia.” He has also said that Kyiv was unlikely to ever join NATO.
Both sides are preparing a warm weather campaign on the battlefield, where a war of attrition has killed tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said Russia is “quickly replenishing front-line units with new recruits to maintain the battlefield initiative.”
In 2024 and more recently, Russian troops have made slow but steady gains in several sections along the front.
Last month, Moscow’s forces also declared that they fully reclaimed chunks of Russia’s Kursk region bordering Ukraine that Kyiv’s forces seized in a surprise incursion in August 2024. Kyiv denied the claim, but it has been steadily losing ground there as Moscow, aided by North Korean soldiers, worked to push them out and leave Ukraine without a key negotiating chip.
Several attempts to establish at least a partial ceasefire have been unsuccessful. Russia effectively rejected a 30-day unconditional truce; the Kremlin instead declared two short, unilateral ceasefires for holidays in the last two months, but in both cases, Kyiv and Moscow accused each other of failing to halt the fighting.
Russia and Ukraine also pledged in March to observe a 30-day halt to attacking energy infrastructure that was brokered by the Trump administration. Both sides repeatedly accused each other of massive violations until the measure expired.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to journalists during a news conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Police carry an injured man on a stretcher after a Russian strike on residential neighborhood in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Thursday, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)
FILE - In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, and President Donald Trump, talk as they attend the funeral of Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, April 26, 2025.(Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP, File)
From left, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz make a call to U.S. President Donald Trump from Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, May 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov)
Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures as he speaks to journalists in the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Sunday, May 11, 2025. (Sergei Bobylev/Photo host agency RIA Novosti via AP)
