Wales’ annual autumn agony against New Zealand was given a brutal re-run as Wayne Pivac’s weakened Six Nations champions leaked seven tries in a 54-16 rout.
The match started and finished with interception tries from fly-half Beauden Barrett, who became the 11th All Black to reach 100 caps.
In between scrum-half TJ Perenara, wing Will Jordan, flanker Dalton Papilii, replacement wing Sevu Reece and centre Anton Lienert-Brown all crossed the whitewash.
Wales did reply with a Johnny Williams try in the 54th minute, but were comprehensively outclassed in a manner that has become all too familiar.
A class apart
For 68 years New Zealand have been handing Wales lessons in how to be clinical. So Perenara’s try felt like Groundhog Day.
It was a textbook example of a team ‘going cold’ with the try-line beckoning, cold in an emotionless, ruthless way that is.
The score came off another watertight All Blacks scrum which saw the visitors roll through the phases in a manner Wales could only aspire to.
The pace they put on the ball, the ability to offload in contact and the intensity and power to get over the gain-line in contact, all combined to render Wales virtually powerless to stop them.
We expect sublime levels of skill from New Zealand, but this was outright physical dominance combined with skill.
In the first half the All Blacks barely attempted to put the ball through the hands of their back line, they simply used their forwards for attacking thrust, using the pick-and-drive to huge effect and keeping play in the centre of the pitch. But it did the job.
Wales went wide on a number of occasions, but their runners were isolated and there was a lack of decoys which meant they were picked off with the minimum of fuss by the opposition.
It was 3-3 in the 10 minutes Laulala was in the sin-bin – to nobody’s great surprise.
Set-piece struggles
It’s a phrase universally loved by the wise old rugby sage – you can’t win a game without a set-piece.
And it’s one old adage that rings true, as we saw here.
New Zealand, as expected, were rock solid. The scrum was concrete secure when it needed to be, the lineout efficient and smooth, with Sam Whitelock and Brodie Retallick bringing to bear the experience of more than 200 caps between them.
Wales, by contrast, were at best shaky, at worst shambolic.
At no stage was this more evident than the closing minutes of the first half when Pivac’s men lost three of their own lineouts in succession, squandering chance after chance to create a situation from which they could claim a try that would have changed the outlook at the interval.
When Seb Davies, on for the injured Ross Moriarty, spilled a ball after Wales planted the penalty they got for Nepa Laulala’s yellow card to touch, you began to feel their assault on the All Blacks’ try line was becoming rather futile.
These were criminal errors because Wales barely got a sniff of a try in the opening 40 minutes, not least because of the line-speed of the New Zealand defence who smothered everything at source and forced Welsh attackers down blind alleys.
New Zealand show surprising caution
Given the evidence of the Perenara try, it was a mystery why New Zealand went for the posts so often in the opening half when they were awarded penalties in the Welsh half.
With a reliable set-piece, their ability to eat up yardage in open play, and their propensity to come away from the opposition red zone with points, you wondered why they didn’t go for the field position kicks to touch would have offered.
Instead Jordie Barrett went for the posts in the 17th and 24th minutes, a sight Wales were probably relieved to see. He earned his side six points, but there was a sense the All Blacks were being conservative.
Wonderful Will
Not Rowlands unfortunately, but Jordan. The hall of fame of New Zealand wingers has many members. It won’t be too long, surely, before we’re adding another one in the shape of All Black number 1191, aka Will Jordan.
In the 55th minute the Crusaders 23-year-old put the game to bed with a piece of stunning opportunism and execution.
Fielding the ball in 10 metres inside his own half, he scanned the Welsh defence and spotted the chance to round lock Will Rowlands on the outside. He cut inside Josh Adams before dinking a perfectly weighted kick over the head of scrum-half Tomos Williams who, on the turn, had no chance of winning a foot-race to the line.
Jordan duly sped through unmolested, gathering his own kick to dot down his side’s third score.
It was poetry. And we’re going to see so much more of it in the coming decade.
Priestland’s impact
Once upon a time the Principality Stadium crowd booed the introduction of Rhys Priestland as a second half substitute.
That seemed a long time ago on this occasion.
The Cardiff man replaced Gareth Anscombe in the 47th minute and brought his class to bear, his confidence helping to add impetus into Wales’ attacking play.
It wasn’t exactly Barry John stuff from Priestland, and his time on the pitch coincided with the All Blacks’ points deluge.
But the former Scarlets and Bath man’s grubber kick behind the New Zealand defence for Jonny Williams’ 54th minute try was a refreshing moment of class in the final third from the hosts.
New Zealand energy
The All Blacks came to Cardiff having been away from home in a Covid bubble for more than a month and having played seven Test matches since September 5.
It would have been easy for them to use tiredness as an excuse. Not a bit of it.
Before the game, Jamie Roberts and Sam Warburton reminisced pitch-side about how on plenty of occasions the Wales teams they played in were ‘there or thereabouts after 65 minutes, but could never seal the deal.
The more things change, the more things stay the same.
By the final 15 minutes Wales were out on their feet, the All Blacks running riot. It was real connoisseur’s stuff, the outcome of the game long since decided.
And it was yet more proof that all the observations we’ve made for the last half a century about Wales being unable to counter New Zealand intensity ring as true today as ever they did.
The debate about why that is perpetually the case will doubtless be given another airing after this.
But don’t expect anything to change.
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