PUB regulars who watched Wales crashing to a sorry defeat against Australia at their Gwent local, had a lucky escape from another crash which left a car embedded in the building.

Customers at the Woodland Tavern, in Llanvair Discoed, Monmouthshire, were drowning their sorrows as Wales struggled against the Wallabies on Saturday, when shortly before half-time a car rolled backwards from the car park and smashed into a wall.

"The handbrake had failed and it rolled from the top of the car park into the outside of the building, where the toilets are," said landlord Keith Gibbs.

"Thankfully, nobody was injured, but there was a lady in the toilet at the time, and she came back into the bar and said I should check outside because something had happened. She was very shaken, but she was all right."

Mr Gibbs went outside to find that the car, a Renault Megane, had hit the wall after rolling across a path used by customers to get to the pub garden.

"It must have been travelling at quite a speed when it hit. It was suspended in the wall off the ground," he said, adding that the vehicle belongs to a local young farmer.

"He was most apologetic, but it's just one of those things.

"We were very busy because of the rugby, and we lost the lights in the toilets, but it was a case of carry on trading.

"I've had a structural engineer out to check things over, and we're open for business as usual."

Wales lost the match 12-33.