All blacks too strong for a tired Wales

New Zealand kicked off their Autumn international campaign with a 12-19 win over an inconsistent Welsh team.

Wales started the game well, holding off a strong all black attack, but didn’t create many attacking opportunities. Wales in attack never seemed too dangerous, however both teams went into the half head to head at six each. My prediction of a second half All Black surge came up trumps though.

This time last year, Wales ended the half 9-3 ahead but the all-blacks came out and dominated for the final 40 minutes.

History seemed to repeat itself. Wales started the second half very poorly, loosing a lineout within their half, Full-Back James Hook buckled under a highball and then Wales conceded a penalty to allow man of the match Dan Carter to add three points minutes into the second half. It didn’t seem to get much better from here.

To sum up Wales’ performance they defended well for the majority. I was particularly impressed with their defence during the second half, there was a large period of time where the All-Blacks were camped in the Welsh 22 and after three unsuccessful television match official decisions, New Zealand eventually went over the white line.

Notable defensive players came in the form of Gethin Jenkins, who managed to make two very important saving tackles. Veteran Flanker Martyn Williams was very good within the breakdown while New Zealand pressurised the Welsh line.

The Welsh attacking platform was very weak in comparison to the All-Black’s. It seemed any attack they initiated ended in conceding a penalty at the breakdown or an All-black turn over. Which allowed Dan Carter and his flawless tactical and territorial kicking to advance New Zealand 50+ yards.

He also had very precise chips over the Welsh defence line and debutant Zac Guildford (who had a fair debut) was always running to contest for the ball and apply pressure to Leigh Halfpenny and Hook. If I’m honest Carter was unlucky not to over take Andrew Mehrtens record points of 967. However Carter is now 1 point off the record, it’s probably fair to say the record will be his this time next week.

The Kiwi’s always looked dangerous from attack, whether from a set piece or in open play. Contrastingly to the Welsh attack, New Zealand always had a man in support looking for an off load, and this put immense pressure on the Welsh.

The Kiwi’s are famous for their defensive work as much as their attacking plays. They are very patient when it comes to defending, when they see that a ruck is lost, they fan out and line their defence. On a number of occasions the only black shirt present in their defensive ruck was that of the tackler.

However, when there is a glimpse of a chance that a turn over could be executed suddenly four or five players pile in and 9/10 times, they come away with the ball.

The reason Wales were turned over so regularly is that their players would always run into contact alone, their support was three or four seconds behind. Now that doesn’t seem a long time, but against a clinical side like New Zealand, those three seconds is more than enough for world class flanker Richie McCaw to regain possession for the Kiwi’s.

James Hook seemed to struggle at Full-back, he certainly felt the pressures from High balls. I wasn’t overly impressed with Gareth Coopers performance at 9. I noticed one aspect of his passing that really bugged me. He never seemed to pass the ball from the base of the ruck. Cooper would pick the ball up take two unnecessary steps back and then pass. This allowed the All-Black defence to come up and pressurise Stephen Jones far quicker than usual.

From this game it is still quite clear to see that southern hemisphere rugby is better than northern hemisphere rugby, although we cannot forget, New Zealand have been playing recently in the Tri-Nations and had an international test against Australia in the Bledisloe cup last weekend, this is the first International test that some of the welsh players had since the 6 Nations in March.

Wales will now hope to recuperate and look for a better performance against Samoa.