Australia was guilty of making too many mistakes and losing its focus in the second half against Wales, according to coach John Connolly.

The 1991 and 1999 world champions led by 25-3 lead at halftime in Cardiff but a reinvigorated Wales, assisted by some Australian indiscipline, enjoyed a second spell revival.

"Happy enough with the first half, disappointed with the second when we loosened up considerably," Connolly said.

"I guess it was our second game in three months, the first one against Japan wasn't as hard as we would have liked and we lost a fair bit of concentration in the second half I would think.

"We gifted Wales a number of opportunities to come back into the game which we shouldn't have done but overall, we got five points ... the players have two days off then we move on to Fiji.

Wales controlled the majority of possession in the second half and at one stage, Australia was down to 13 men with Drew Mitchell and Nathan Sharpe both in the sin bin.

"We fluffed three or four try-scoring opportunities," added Connolly. "They came back into the game on the back of our errors, our mistakes, our penalties.

"Whether that was a result of being up 25-3 at halftime and we took the foot off the pedal... a number of penalties went against us...it gives us something to work on in the week."

Connolly also commented on the performance of first five Berrick Barnes who was handed his first test start in place of the injured Stephen Larkham.

"An outstanding effort first up ... into a cauldron like that," said the coach. "He's a very tough young guy mentally and he showed a lot of composure. His defence was good.