Kiwis best on planet in any sport, says Wales’s Jenkins

NEW Zealand are now the world’s best side in any sport, says Wales rugby great, Neil Jenkins.

The world champion All Blacks are on a record run for a major rugby union nation of 18 successive test wins, a sequence they will look to extend when they face Ireland in Chicago on Saturday.

In June, New Zealand secured a 3-0 series win at home to Wales and went on to dominate the southern hemisphere Rugby Championship.

Jenkins, Wales’s record pointsscorer and now their skills coach, said on Tuesday: “I thought we played pretty well in the first and second tests against New Zealand and had opportunities in both games, to a point, but it is just how good they are.

“They are easily the best team on the planet in any sport. Whenever they play a test match, they seem to get the job done.”

Wales, who have not beaten New Zealand since 1953, will be spared a fresh encounter with the All Blacks during a round of endof-year internationals which starts for them at home to Australia on Saturday before Argentina, Japan and South Africa all visit Cardiff.

But somehow knocking New Zealand off their perch remains the goal for Jenkins.

“That’s what the rest of us have to get to and try to overtake. They are incredibly good, and the standard for today’s game.

“For Australia, South Africa, ourselves, France, Ireland, England, Scotland and the rest of the sides, it’s a gap we have to close.”

Someone looking to do just that is Warren Gatland, who has left his day job as Wales head coach to concentrate on his role in charge of the British and Irish Lions side who will tour his native New Zealand next year.

The Kiwi coach guided the Lions -- a side featuring the best players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales -to a series win in Australia three years ago.

But the All Blacks are likely to prove far sterner opponents than the Wallabies, with the Lions having won just one test series in New Zealand, back in 1971.

Gatland said he was looking to add an extra attack coach to his backroom staff, a move which could open up a role for Rob Howley – his stand-in as Wales coach and himself a former Wales and Lions scrumhalf. – AFP

That’s what the rest of us have to. . . try to overtake. They are. . . the standard for today’s game