KIWIS CHANGE GEAR TO BEAT TOUGH WALES
WARREN GATLAND praised the never say die attitude of his Wales side after another defeat by the World champions.
Like the previous week, Wales were well in the contest at half time at 10-10.
But New Zealand went on to score 26 unanswered points in the second half to make sure they clinched the three-match series with a game to spare.
Gatland (below) was still proud of the way Wales fought to the last.
He said: “The courage to keep playing and not to give up is a huge tick. We had 58 per cent territory and possession tonight and that’s a massive number against the All Blacks – we’ve never done that before.
“I’m pretty proud about that performance. There were a couple of key moments which were the difference.
“We’re creating chances and the players are already aware of a couple of things that next week they will do a little bit different because they’ve already learned from tonight.”
The Kiwis hit back through Israel Dagg after Dan Biggar had landed a penalty to put Wales in front.
Then Alun Wyn Jones dotted down at the corner on the stroke of half time, before Biggar converted from the touchline to level the scores at 10-10 at the break.
Ben Smith broke clear in the second half to score for New Zealand before Beauden Barrett, Waisake Naholo and Ardie Savea also crossed the line.
Liam Williams broke clear to score from 50 metres to spark a late fightback from Wales, but by the time Jonathan Davies had used all his strength to barge over, it was too little, too late.
Wales captain Sam Warburton insists his team will not give up on their attacking approach despite the second defeat.
Warburton felt the late rally demonstrated his side’s character.
“We’ll never give up. We want to try and throw the ball around a little bit,” he said.
“The people of New Zealand have been fantastic over the last week, whether we’ve been at the hotel or out on the streets, saying they enjoy the way we play, and that’s the way we’ve tried to play it – to throw the ball around and take some chances. But it didn’t work out for us today.
“New Zealand h have proved why they’re the best team in the world. They were extremely clinical, we made two or three mistakes that led to two or three tries again. That was a huge momentum swing then.”
All Blacks captain Kieran Read admitted his side had been made to work very hard.
“It was a tough Test match. The Welsh are a really battle-hardened team and kept flying at us,” he said.
“We got a bit of extra ball in that second half and were able to make it pay.
“They are an exceptionally good side, they really pushed us and attacked really well.
“They made us defend for long periods of time and made us work really hard for our win, and thankfully we’ve got a team which does that, which is great.”