Wales threw away 20 points – that’s criminal
In the end it probably wasn’t as bad as many people expected. And wasn’t it predictable that Beauden Barrett should not only set the tone with his first interception try, but then have the final word with his second on the day he became rugby’s latest centurion?
The greatest of players just pop up in the right place at the right time. It used to be Dan Carter, but these days it is Barrett. And if it’s not Beauden it’s his brother Jordie.
Who will New Zealand churn out next from their awesome No.10 production line to haunt us Welsh? First it was Grant Fox, Frano Botica, Andrew Mehrtens and Carlos Spencer. Then it was the great Carter. We couldn’t get him and now we can’t catch Beauden.
Seven tries to one tells its own story, but so do the try counts against New Zealand down the years. There was a time when Welsh coaches would say ‘give us 40 per cent possession and we will beat any team’. Any team except the All Blacks, that is. The seven tries they scored made it 151 tries in 36 games against Wales since 1905.
That’s an average of just over four tries every time they play us. We’ve now managed 36 in reply which is the equivalent of one per game!
You can’t score without the ball and without a decent platform up front. We had a solid enough scrum, the line-out creaked later on, but our ball carriers never made the impact of the men in black. It didn’t help that we lost both Alun Wyn Jones and Ross Moriarty, but this side needs more goforward and quicker possession to have a chance to function properly.
I wonder how they will measure up to the South Africans this weekend.
If they get bogged down in an armwrestle then there will be only one winner.
While I could go on for hours and hours about how good the All Blacks are, the key thing is to learn from the lessons of this game. It is hard enough to meet them on a level playing field without leaking two interception tries and conceding lots of penalties. There were more than 20 avoidable points.
It was summed up by the penalty after Wales had got back into the game through Johnny Williams’ try which was given away for chasing from in front of the kicker. Criminal.
Precision is needed at the highest level of international sport although I will be the first to admit I adhere to the old adage that skill levels break down under pressure and fatigue.
The interception tries were as a result of pressure while four tries in the final quarter bears out the fatigue element.
Most of the Welsh players have come into the autumn with four or five games in the URC under their belts. They will be reaching their peak around the time of the Six Nations.
Winning the Six Nations is always a major goal for Welsh players, but beating New Zealand really should be turned into the Holy Grail. It is now 68 years and counting since we last beat them.
Wales were already patched-up going into this game, but things got even worse with the injuries to Alun Wyn and Ross. Away from Principality Stadium Dan Biggar and Thomas Young also came off in their games with Northampton and Wasps.
It was pleasing to hear Wayne issue an upbeat verdict on Alun Wyn saying he was feeling OK. The guys is Superman! But even if he does feel fine and his scan doesn’t show huge amounts of damage, I do wonder if he should face South Africa.
The Springboks aren’t the sort of team you want to face if there are any doubts over your fitness. The Englishbased players who missed the New Zealand game will be back for South Africa.
It doesn’t look too good on Ross and that is a big blow because Wales are so light in the back row. Shane Lewis Hughes might end up getting a call-up.
I’d also like to give some praise to Rhys Priestland and finish by looking at a few positives. It was great to see Gareth Anscombe back on the field after all he has been through.
His game didn’t have the best of starts with the intercept he threw which allowed Beauden Barrett to score. But I thought Gareth did very well before making way for Rhys. I really liked the way Rhys played flat to the gainline. That made a very big difference. He put a nice kick through for Johnny’s try.
Rhys isn’t even guaranteed a place on the bench next week, but we already know Gareth won’t play every game and there are injury concerns over Dan. Rhys certainly didn’t do his chances of selection any harm with his second-half cameo.
I also thought Johnny McNicholl had a decent game at full-back and I was pleased with how well Taine Basham went on the flank. Taine will take so much from that and playing against guys like Ardie Savea.
In the end, though, Wales were well beaten and things aren’t going to get easier against South Africa, Fiji and then Australia follow.
Wales are in a tricky position, but guys like Taine and Johnny show whatever happens in the rest of this autumn, it won’t be a waste.
“The seven tries the All Blacks scored made it 151 in 36 games against Wales”