KIWI CURSE HAS TO END ONE DAY
Wales stay positive despite not beating All Blacks since 1953
EVEN the most optimistic Welsh fan will be watching through their fingers today. It has been so long since their last victory against the All Blacks that anyone present with a memory of 1953 will have been first in line for their Covid booster jab.
Only one player survives from that 13-8 win, the prop Courtenay Meredith, who was 95 in September.
It is understandable then that Wales have largely given up hoping they might one day beat New Zealand. What is more there are worries that the ground will not be full today.
Despite being billed as a sell-out, it seems Welsh clubs have overstretched on their ticket allocations and were last night flogging as many as possible, some for a loss, on social media.
Nervousness around the pandemic, trepidation about the Covid pass required to enter, and the price — top seats at £95 — for a Test where the odds are stacked against Wales have all led to the underwhelming response.
Amid all this, the Welsh squad are remaining optimistic.
Captain Alun Wyn Jones said: ‘The hoodoo has to go at some point, what I have said is we need a performance.’
Johnny Williams, the 25-year-old centre winning his fourth cap, echoed the sentiment, adding: ‘We’ve got to make sure we bring physicality, we’re smart in how we approach the game and our game management is good so it gives us every chance to get the win everyone would love to see.’
‘We could be the first group to go and beat them for almost 70 years. What that would do for the nation would be massive. It would be amazing.’
Prop Wyn Jones said: ‘We need to make sure we don’t show them too much respect. We can’t stand off them, we have to get at them.’
Much around this match has an image problem.
Arranged as a Test to gross the WRU £10million, and hand them a £4m profit to plough into a struggling rugby nation after Covid, some view it as a dash for cash with the rugby itself down the pecking order of priorities.
As it is played outside the international window, Wales are without seven English-based players, adding to the 13 others out via injury or, in Uilisi Halaholo’s case, Covid.
And however storied the 118-year history of this match is, the modern reality is that the All Blacks are unlikely to be here without the cool £2m fee they demand to turn up.
But New Zealand scoffed at the criticism of the match.
‘I find it very hard to cheer up pessimists so I won’t try to change their mind,’ said their head coach Ian Foster. ‘It would not be a Test week without people knocking the game or talking about the haka.
‘It’s outside the window but we have known that for nine months. It’s a game both countries wanted and been in the schedule for a long time so everybody has had a chance to get ready for it.
‘When you look at teams missing players some of them are through injury and that’s regardless of what window that’s in. The numbers have been blown up.
‘They are the Six Nations champions, you don’t do that by not having depth.
‘They have got a tight five that is largely intact, a lot of them Lions from the South Africa tour, so there will be no surprise to see them go to that part of the game as a key strength of theirs.’
Mercifully, there will be elements to celebrate: Wales fly-half Gareth Anscombe’s return to action after 812 days away from the Test stage — three knee operations later — and his opposite number Beauden Barrett winning his 100th cap. WALES: McNicholl; Lane, J Davies, J Williams, Adams; Anscombe, T Williams; W Jones, Elias, Francis, Beard, A W Jones (capt), Moriarty, Wainwright, Basham. Subs: Myhill, Carre, Lewis, Rowlands, S Davies, G Davies, Priestland, B Thomas. NEW ZEALAND: J Barrett; Jordan, Lienert-Brown, Havili, Ioane; B Barrett, Perenara; Moody, Taylor, Laulala, Retallick, Whitelock (capt), Blackadder, A Savea, Papalii. Subs: Taukei’aho, Tu’inukuafe, Lomax, Vaa’i, A Ioane, Weber, Mo’unga, Reece.