It feels like the same tagline could have been used to describe each of the All Blacks Northern Tour matches. Terms like “scrape home’ and “survived a scare” could have been paired with “brave opposition” and “last minute show of class” to illustrate exactly what occurred against England, Scotland, and now Wales.
As it was, a brave Welsh defensive effort that last all of 60 minutes was eventually broken down by moments of individual brilliance from Beauden Barrett, Kieran Read, and Aaron Smith. There were times, two to be exact (when the Welsh led by a single point), where the Welsh faithful would have dared to dream a first win against the All Blacks since 1953 was possible, only to have the dream quickly turn into nightmare as tries to Barrett (2) and Read rudely interrupted the local hope.
Both tries were typical moments of skill and composure. Barrett’s effort to take the All Blacks into a 70th minute lead was an excellent individual chip and chase with a cruel bounce of the ball seeing him past an incoming Leigh Halfpenny. Read’s on the other hand was a close range charge down and gather, upsetting a Mike Phillips box clearance. Read showed tremendous nous and patience close to the line in scoring the decisive game winner.
Before the late breakaway, the contest was dominated by strong defensive efforts from both sides. The Welsh effort to keep the All Blacks scoreless in the first half was as impressive as it was slightly negative. Without really threatening the All Blacks, and using a large number of stoppages to give running repairs to their forward pack, the home side clearly felt a disruptive rather than expansive game plan gave them the best chance of victory.
The approach worked for most of the first half as the Welsh flat defensive line squeezed the All Blacks and prevented them from finding any consistent width or space in which to play at their fast paced best. Barrett and Halfpenny were the only point scorers in what made for relatively dour and error prone rugby.
The half time break at least provided a hint of inspiration for the sides as both crossed for early second half tries (Julian Savea and Rhys Webb) that entertained the 77,000 strong crowd but quickly reinstated the deadlock. As the pressure began to tell, the kicking games of the sides started to reflect the ambition of the teams, and would eventually prove the difference. The Welsh chose a territorial game and continuously booted quality ball away in attempts to drive the All Blacks into their own half. The men in black however, opted for more positive kicking often behind the fast approaching rush defence. The ploy was successful with a cross field Barrett kick leading to a Jerome Kaino try and a chip and gather effort from Barrett sending the Kiwi’s back to NZ with another test win.
Wales should take some heart from a defensive effort that definitely unsettled the All Blacks but will also rue missing out on a treasured win against the All Blacks, a win that at half time seemed entirely plausible.
All Blacks: 34 (Julian Savea, Jerome Kaino, 2 Beauden Barrett, Kieran Read tries; Beauden Barrett con, pen; Colin Slade 2 con)
Wales: 16 (Rhys Webb try; Leigh Halfpenny con, 3 pens)
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