Unforgiving All Blacks will slaughter us unless we see a big improvement

WALES face the ultimate test in New Zealand and there is nowhere harder in the world to go. And if Wales play as they did in the last 60 minutes against England last Sunday, they will get slaughtered.

The All Blacks are very unforgiving and there is no room for sentiment. They will not hold back on us and won’t show Wales any sympathy.

That’s why they are the best side in the world.

My concern is that we are not developing or evolving as a team and I hope the Wales squad prove me wrong in New Zealand over the next three weeks.

I can see some progression with England under Eddie Jones after they have evolved from the team who were World Cup flops.

I think they will be more than competitive against Australia in their three Test series but based on what I witnessed last weekend I can’t say the same about Wales. My fear is that things have gone stale with a coaching staff who have been their more than eight years, with some being part of the set-up even longer.

They are hearing the same voice all the time and that’s not always good.

Again, I hope they prove me wrong in New Zealand. But the signs aren’t good after what they produced against an English side who were missing many of their Grand Slam stars

I was worried about what I witnessed at Twickenham and to say it was a gross under-performance would be an understatement.

If you can’t motivate yourself to play England then there is something drastically wrong. One of Wales’ strengths under Warren Gatland has been their never-say-die attitude which has sometimes masked some of the flaws, but there was precious little of that against England and that comes down to personal motivation.

After a promising start, Wales lost out in all the statistics. The scrum was under pressure as the game went on and our lineout started falling apart and it was worrying the amount of turnover we were conceding.

But the most worrying aspect was the number of tackles we missed was disgraceful. It was all the more baffling, because if you go back to what we achieved during the World Cup was that our defence was one of the best on display and actually allowed us to emerge from the group.

In the last quarter of last Sunday’s game, Jamie Roberts was handed off twice as a consequence of poor tackle technique.

It was strange, because we know the players are better than that and we have seen them play better than that.

The advantage England have is a competitive club structure that underpins their game, which means the players are hardened coming into Test matches whereas regional rugby does not serve the same purpose.

Going from that to tackling the All Blacks in their own back yard is such a huge step up.

To recover from the defeat against England, Wales may well go back to their Plan A under Gatland which has been coined as ‘Warrenball’ which is what normally happens.

But I don’t think that will trouble New Zealand who have a tradition of evolving and consolidating and keeping a step ahead of everyone else. That’s not just the All Blacks, it’s the whole nation with the clubs and provinces all buying into that concept which means every player has a grounding in the way the Test team should play.

That is why that despite the retirement of Richie McCaw, Dan Carter, Conrad Smith, Ma’a Nonu, Keven Mealamu and Tony Woodcock and Sonny Bill Williams away with the Sevens, they can cope because of their strength in depth.

I have heard claims they might be ring rusty but it will be guaranteed that every player will be going on that field performing to their absolute best.

And being at their absolute best is what Wales will have to be to have chance of ending 63 years of hurt since the last victory over New Zealand in 1953.