None of Wales’s management team, never mind the players, was alive when the men in red last defeated the All Blacks, in 1953, but more disconcerting than that long losing run before this month’s three-Test tour to the land of the World Cup holders is a recent loss of form.
Wales’s defeat to England last Sunday at Twickenham, when they were outscored five tries to one, meant they travelled to Auckland with three victories in eight Tests, all against the sides who finished in the bottom half of this year’s Six Nations.
“We know there is definite room for improvement and we have probably not hit the heights since 2014 when, although we did not finish well in that year’s Six Nations, we had some really good performances culminating in Ireland at home,” says Sam Warburton. “It has been hit and miss since then.
“In most campaigns, we will deliver at least one really good performance but we failed to in the recent Six Nations. We enjoyed really good years in 2012 and 2013, and while I do not think we have gone backwards since then, we need to find another gear in New Zealand and that is well within our capability. I think we might have stolen the championship this year but for England’s massive improvement and they have real depth now, as they showed last Sunday.”
Since Warren Gatland took over as head coach eight years ago, it has rarely paid to write Wales off and New Zealand, playing their first match since winning the World Cup final against Australia at Twickenham seven months ago, will not, at a time when they have to replace a core of experienced players and leaders, including Richie McCaw, Dan Carter and Conrad Smith.
“It has been way too long since we last beat New Zealand,” says Warburton, who is hoping to play in Saturday’s first Test after five weeks out of action with a shoulder injury the captain sustained in Cardiff Blues’ defeat to Ospreys in late April. “Our record against them is disappointing and, on my list of things to achieve, beating the All Blacks is one. Once would not be enough, and I would not make a song and dance about it if we did defeat them because you would be making out there is a big gap with them.
“The aim has to be emulate the England team of 2003, who beat them a few times [in fact twice], and this tour is an amazing opportunity for us. I never go into a game not believing we can win it and if I heard any one of our players saying they did not feel we could defeat the All Blacks I would tell him he was not the right person to be on the tour.
“Mindset is half the battle in professional sport. New Zealand will be massive favourites: they have been the best team in the world for a long time and they will be the best we have faced for a few years, but the prospect of victory is what motivates you. New Zealand might have lost experience, but they never lose talent and their strength in depth is scary. It is an amazing rugby country and the 2011 World Cup there was my best rugby experience.”
Warburton hopes to be fit for the first Test at Eden Park, a ground where New Zealand have not tasted defeat since 1994, in the amateur era. He was told when he suffered the injury playing for Cardiff Blues against Ospreys that he would be out for six weeks and with Dan Lydiate ruled out of the tour after suffering an injury against England, Wales need their captain back.
“I knew I would not play against England and my target has always been the first Test,” he says. “I went into the Six Nations in February without much rugby, but I was coming back from a lower limb injury then and it is different this time because I have been able to take part in rugby sessions and have had the legs run off me for the last five weeks. It will feel strange not facing Richie McCaw, but they have Sam Cane who is one of the world’s best opensides and sums up just how strong rugby in New Zealand is.”
