Wales Women narrowly lost 25-19 to Australia Wallaroos in a tense WXV1 encounter at Mount Smart Stadium, finishing the inaugural tournament without a win.
The Wallaroos opened the scoring when winger Maya Stewart touched down following a swift move orchestrated by fly-half Carys Dallinger. Wales responded 15 minutes later through a powerful lineout maul, with hooker Carys Phillips diving over to level the scores.
Dallinger then kicked a penalty after a ruck infringement, but Australia were reduced to 14 players just after half-time when Siokapesi Palu was shown a red card for a high tackle on Jasmine Joyce. Wales capitalised on their numerical advantage with a penalty try from another dominant maul, while an Australian player was sin-binned.
Despite their disadvantage, Australia fought back with tries from Eva Karpani, replacement Lori Cramer, and Ivania Wong, the latter after a cross-field kick from Dallinger, to establish a 25-14 lead.
Wales narrowed the deficit with a third maul try, scored by replacement hooker Kelsey Jones, but could not find an equaliser and ultimately fell to a six-point defeat, their third consecutive loss in the competition.
