Barrett comes off the bench to batter Wales
Same old, same old. Wales were brave and right in it with the half-time scores level. But, yet again, they succumbed in the second half and their wait for a first victory in New Zealand continues.
The tale was slightly different this time, in that it was not until the third quarter that the All Blacks scored a burst of three tries to take the series 2-0, with one Test to play in Dunedin.
To their credit, Wales responded with two late tries of their own, confounding those who said fitness was the key difference between the sides.
But the world champions always looked the classier, with wonderful performances from scrum-half Aaron Smith, No8 Kieran Read, hooker Dane Coles and, most especially, from replacement fly-half Beauden Barrett.
There were also hugely positive individual efforts for Wales. Liam Williams, despite being shifted from full-back to wing, was again delightfully spiky and incisive. At full-back, Rhys Patchell showed nice touches in his first start, and forwards Gethin Jenkins, Alun Wyn Jones, Ross Moriarty, Taulupe Faletau and Sam Warburton had fine matches.
But the Welsh line-out was poor, they did not make enough of their vast amount of first-half possession and, when it came to the game’s critical moments, New Zealand always delivered.
Wales head coach Warren Gatland still declared himself pleased. “The courage to keep playing and not to give up is a huge tick,” he said.
“We had 58 per cent territory and possession and that’s a massive number against the All Blacks – we’ve never done that before ... I’m pretty proud about that performance.
“We’re creating chances,” he said, but had to add that the All Blacks “are clinical, and those are the small margins that we need to be better at.
“The big thing for us is continuing to compete against the best team in the world. We’ll learn a huge amount from this series,” said Gatland. “They tried to create tempo in the last 20 minutes, but we were the ones who kept playing.”
It was always going to be a physical match and that was underlined by a huge clash in the first minute between Jamie Roberts and Malakai Fekitoa. Both players were cut, Fekitoa so much so that he departed briefly. But more worrying was a neck injury to Aaron Cruden on 32 minutes, after which play stopped for almost nine minutes until the fly-half was carried off on a stretcher to be replaced by Barrett. Although Cruden was taken to hospital, that was later described as “precautionary”.
Wales had taken the lead from a Dan Biggar penalty before the All Blacks scored the first try, with Israel Dagg celebrating his return to the side, and indeed his 50th cap, with a well-taken score thanks in part to some poor decisions by Wales after New Zealand had kicked a penalty into the corner.
Aaron Smith made the long pass to Fekitoa, as Jonathan Davies flew up, and the centre fed Dagg who was able to cruise over. Cruden converted, then added a penalty to make it 10-3, but Wales responded just before half-time with a wonderful try. The initial thrust was made by Davies, who went past Barrett. The ball then went right, where Hallam Amos almost got himself in with clever footwork. Then, as the attack moved left, Davies dug out a long, looped pass to find lock Jones in space. Biggar converted from the touchline to level it at 10-10 at the break.
New Zealand were mightily fortunate after the restart not to lose Waisake Naholo to the sin bin for his tackle on Liam Williams in the air when he was in no position to challenge for the ball. Had Williams landed on his shoulder, head or neck, it would surely have been a red card. That it was not a yellow was unfathomable.
Wales then had an excellent chance to retake the lead when Warburton intercepted, but Faletau could not take the pass and New Zealand immediately made Wales pay, as they tend to do.
In perhaps the game’s most decisive moment, Barrett made a break with some brilliant footwork and fed Ben Smith on the right wing for an easy score. Barrett converted for 17-10.
The All Blacks were now inspired as scrum-half Smith broke from his own 22. The result was a scrummage and a wondrous pass from No 8 Read that found Smith, who fed Barrett. A dummy, a slide and an outstretched hand and the super-sub was over. He then picked himself up to convert his try and take the All Blacks’ lead to 24-10.
That advantage was soon extended with another move off an attacking scrum as Read fed Smith on the blind side and Naholo was able to stroll over. New Zealand had scored three tries in eight minutes and it was a shock when Barrett demonstrated some fallibility by missing the conversion.
Wales then, inexplicably, botched an attacking line-out and were punished. Naholo received the ball on the left from a kick into space and found replacement flanker Ardie Savea who stepped inside the cover defence and scorched away for a remarkable score. Barrett regained his kicking boots to make it 36-10.
New Zealand had scored 26 unanswered points before Wales finally rallied. And it was no great surprise that Williams provided the visitors’ score, cutting the All Black line with a delightful angle and then just seeing off Dagg’s challenge for a thoroughly deserved score. Biggar converted.
And there was more from Wales as Roberts charged down and collected substitute Seta Tamanivalu’s kick and sped down the field. Barrett caught him but Roberts found Rhys Priestland, fresh off the bench, in support, and he found Davies. The centre did extremely well to score with a ferocious fend off.
However, it was All Black centre Ryan Crotty who might have had the final word had he not just put a foot in touch when apparently scoring off the game’s last play.
It was probably fair that New Zealand did not score again. It would have been harsh on Wales to ship more than 40 points, though there was no doubt who were the superior side.
Wales were brave but the clinical composure came from the All Blacks.