Record Wallabies win in Cardiff plunges Wales to worst losing run in history

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.

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)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A day after the audacious U.S. military operation in Venezuela, President Donald Trump on Sunday renewed his calls for an American takeover of the Danish territory of Greenland for the sake of U.S. security interests, while his top diplomat declared the communist government in Cuba is “in a lot of trouble.”

The comments from Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the ouster of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro underscore that the U.S. administration is serious about taking a more expansive role in the Western Hemisphere.

With thinly veiled threats, Trump is rattling hemispheric friends and foes alike, spurring a pointed question around the globe: Who's next?

“It’s so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place," Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington from his home in Florida. "We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”

Asked during an interview with The Atlantic earlier on Sunday what the U.S.-military action in Venezuela could portend for Greenland, Trump replied: “They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don’t know.”

Trump, in his administration's National Security Strategy published last month, laid out restoring “American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere” as a central guidepost for his second go-around in the White House.

Trump has also pointed to the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, which rejects European colonialism, as well as the Roosevelt Corollary — a justification invoked by the U.S. in supporting Panama’s secession from Colombia, which helped secure the Panama Canal Zone for the U.S. — as he's made his case for an assertive approach to American neighbors and beyond.

Trump has even quipped that some now refer to the fifth U.S. president's foundational document as the “Don-roe Doctrine.”

Saturday's dead-of-night operation by U.S. forces in Caracas and Trump’s comments on Sunday heightened concerns in Denmark, which has jurisdiction over the vast mineral-rich island of Greenland.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in a statement that Trump has "no right to annex" the territory. She also reminded Trump that Denmark already provides the United States, a fellow member of NATO, broad access to Greenland through existing security agreements.

“I would therefore strongly urge the U.S. to stop threatening a historically close ally and another country and people who have made it very clear that they are not for sale,” Frederiksen said.

Denmark on Sunday also signed onto a European Union statement underscoring that “the right of the Venezuelan people to determine their future must be respected” as Trump has vowed to “run” Venezuela and pressed the acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, to get in line.

Trump on Sunday mocked Denmark’s efforts at boosting Greenland’s national security posture, saying the Danes have added “one more dog sled” to the Arctic territory’s arsenal.

Greenlanders and Danes were further rankled by a social media post following the raid by a former Trump administration official turned podcaster, Katie Miller. The post shows an illustrated map of Greenland in the colors of the Stars and Stripes accompanied by the caption: “SOON."

“And yes, we expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Amb. Jesper Møller Sørensen, Denmark's chief envoy to Washington, said in a post responding to Miller, who is married to Trump's influential deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.

During his presidential transition and in the early months of his return to the White House, Trump repeatedly called for U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland, and has pointedly not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island that belongs to an ally.

The issue had largely drifted out of the headlines in recent months. Then Trump put the spotlight back on Greenland less than two weeks ago when he said he would appoint Republican Gov. Jeff Landry as his special envoy to Greenland.

The Louisiana governor said in his volunteer position he would help Trump “make Greenland a part of the U.S.”

Meanwhile, concern simmered in Cuba, one of Venezuela’s most important allies and trading partners, as Rubio issued a new stern warning to the Cuban government. U.S.-Cuba relations have been hostile since the 1959 Cuban revolution.

Rubio, in an appearance on NBC's “Meet the Press,” said Cuban officials were with Maduro in Venezuela ahead of his capture.

“It was Cubans that guarded Maduro,” Rubio said. “He was not guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards. He had Cuban bodyguards.” The secretary of state added that Cuban bodyguards were also in charge of “internal intelligence” in Maduro’s government, including “who spies on who inside, to make sure there are no traitors.”

Trump said that “a lot” of Cuban guards tasked with protecting Maduro were killed in the operation. The Cuban government said in a statement read on state television on Sunday evening that 32 officers were killed in the U.S. military operation.

Trump also said that the Cuban economy, battered by years of a U.S. embargo, is in tatters and will slide further now with the ouster of Maduro, who provided the Caribbean island subsidized oil.

“It's going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It's going down for the count.”

Cuban authorities called a rally in support of Venezuela’s government and railed against the U.S. military operation, writing in a statement: “All the nations of the region must remain alert, because the threat hangs over all of us.”

Rubio, a former Florida senator and son of Cuban immigrants, has long maintained Cuba is a dictatorship repressing its people.

“This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live — and we’re not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors, and rivals of the United States," Rubio said.

Cubans like 55-year-old biochemical laboratory worker Bárbara Rodríguez were following developments in Venezuela. She said she worried about what she described as an “aggression against a sovereign state.”

“It can happen in any country, it can happen right here. We have always been in the crosshairs,” Rodríguez said.

AP writers Andrea Rodriguez in Havana, Cuba, and Darlene Superville traveling aboard Air Force One contributed reporting.

In this photo released by the White House, President Donald Trump monitors U.S. military operations in Venezuela, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (Molly Riley/The White House via AP)