Wales 35–28 New Zealand: The day 73 years of hurt came to an end

Simon Thomas

As the great Max Boyce famously said, “I know ’cos I was there.”

I have been there plenty of times before when it comes to Wales v New Zealand.

In fact, I was there for the majority of the 34 successive Welsh defeats that followed the victory of 1953, both home and away.

I was there in 1978 at the old National Ground when Wales were winning going into the final minute, only for the Kiwis to snatch the spoils after a notorious spot of lineout leaping.

I was there in 2004 when Mike Ruddock’s team came tantalisingly close to victory at the Millennium Stadium before ultimately going down by two points.

I’ve been there a number of times when Wales have been in the hunt after 50-odd minutes, only for the All Blacks to pull well clear.

In recent years, there have been precious few days of hope amid some very heavy margins of defeat.

If truth be told, I had pretty much given up on seeing Wales beat New Zealand in my lifetime.

I certainly didn’t see it coming today, but then who did?

After all, in their previous 32 Test matches against all opposition, the only victories Wales had secured were over Japan (three times), Georgia, Fiji and Italy.

It was more than three years since they had beaten a team in the top eight – the 40-6 win over Australia at the 2023 World Cup in Lyon.

They had become very much a Tier 2 nation of late.

To put it in further context, they were given just a three per cent chance of winning this Nations Championship game, while some bookmakers were offering odds of 20-1.

Most Welsh fans would probably have settled for losing by fewer than 25 points beforehand.

Glorious

As such, what happened at the Principality Stadium this afternoon made no sense whatsoever, but that just made it all the sweeter as 73 years of hurt came to a glorious end.

It’s a historic victory which will serve as a massive shot in the arm for Welsh rugby at a point when it was so badly needed.

Times have been very tough both on and off the field over the last couple of years.

So it’s hard to overstate just how good today felt.

There were heroes in red everywhere you looked out on the park and the fans in red up in the stands responded in kind, raising the rafters with raucous, passionate support.

The noise in the final two minutes as Wales ran down the clock to seal the win was simply deafening. I have never known an atmosphere like it at a sporting event before.

It was spine-tingling stuff and I wouldn’t have been the only person with a little tear in the eye when the final whistle sounded.

There were emotional scenes all around, with the look on people’s faces saying it all – a mixture of sheer elation and delighted disbelief.

A few hours on, it’s still sinking in and there will be plenty of Welsh folk pinching themselves late into the night.

It was an unbelievable win, but you’d better believe it, baby!

So how on earth did it happen?

Well, essentially it was down to excellence in attack and absolute heroics in defence.

First, the attack.

To an extent, the fact that Wales scored five tries against the mighty All Blacks speaks for itself.

But when you look at them in detail, it becomes all the more impressive as there were some really well-constructed scores.

The tone for a remarkable day was set inside 90 seconds.

After Nicky Smith won a turnover in midfield, Wales first probed out on the left before moving the ball to the opposite touchline, with Tomos Williams throwing a huge miss pass to Louis Rees-Zammit, who chipped over the top.

It was then down to the vagaries of a rugby ball as it bounced away from Fehi Fineanganofo, enabling Williams to pounce.

The Saracens scrum-half was to be at the heart of most of Wales’ best moments going forward as he had one of his finest games for his country from an attacking perspective.

He was the man pulling the strings, as he demonstrated for their second try.

It came off a lineout, with that area of the game much improved on last weekend against Japan.

From an Adam Beard take at the tail, Williams fed Gabriel Hamer-Webb, Taine Basham and Jac Morgan in quick succession before firing a scoring pass across two bodies to Dewi Lake, who showed good strength to cross the whitewash.

That made it 14-0 after six minutes and Wales were in dreamland.

Almost inevitably, the All Blacks hit back, only for the hosts to strike for a third time.

Once again, it stemmed from a Beard leap at an attacking lineout. Once more, Williams serviced his carriers in Max Llewellyn, Lake and Archie Griffin.

And once again, there was a forceful finish as prop Griffin touched down for the second game in a row despite the attentions of three defenders.

New Zealand responded to make it 21-21 at the break, only for Wales to move 14 points clear for a third time as Eddie James and Rees-Zammit took the try tally to five.

The first of those followed a really patient build-up as they went through 15 phases amid a succession of pick-and-gos before Williams missed out no fewer than four team-mates with a long pass to put centre James in at the left corner.

As for Rees-Zammit’s score, the foundation was a further Beard lineout claim, with Lake breaking away off the maul before Williams threw out yet another scoring assist to his wing.

All in all, Wales were a really potent attacking unit.

The lineout provided the foundation, the carriers made ground and Williams was there to marshal manoeuvres and deliver the killer pass, while you had the razor-sharp Rees-Zammit providing a constant threat as he ran for more metres (95) than anyone else on the park.

It was great to watch.

They have now shown what they can do when they have decent ball and it bodes well for the future, starting with Australia next Saturday.

Rees-Zammit crossed inside the first eight minutes of the second half, and Sam Costelow’s conversion made it 35-21.

But that was only half the story.

Remarkable

What was to follow was perhaps even more remarkable.

For the next half-hour or so, New Zealand completely dominated both territory and possession as they came at Wales in black wave after black wave.

They earned swift reward when their outstanding flanker Peter Lakai burrowed over and it seemed certain that further scores would follow as they continued to pummel away.

It was simply remorseless and you felt the dam was sure to break.

Yet it didn’t, as Wales somehow kept them out for the final 25 minutes amid some of the most extraordinary defence this famous ground has ever seen.

To a man, they put their bodies on the line for the cause.

Three times, they held the visitors up over the line, with Gareth Thomas, James Botham and Dan Edwards the players to perform the heroics.

In addition, there were two priceless turnovers in his own 22 from Taine Plumtree.

You felt there was no way they could hold out, such was the relentless pressure they were coming under.

But hold out they did, to the ever-increasing jubilation of the home fans.

It was real Rorke’s Drift stuff and it was inspiring to watch.

The defensive stats are worth recording because they are pretty remarkable.

Wales made 346 tackles in all compared to 136 from the Kiwis.

Leading the way was Dafydd Jenkins on 40, a scarcely believable tally for a second-rower, with Jac Morgan and player of the match Botham on 34 and 33 respectively.

A further five Welsh players made 20-plus tackles.

It’s hard to think there has been anything quite like it before from a collective perspective.

Bravery

There was also bravery over the ball, with Morgan winning four turnovers, while Plumtree and James pulled off two apiece.

As the minutes ticked away and the Kiwis continued to be repelled, you just had the sense of people in the crowd really starting to believe.

It all built to the crescendo of those final couple of minutes as the hosts went through a series of very precise carries around halfway to see out time and signal the party to end all parties.

So there you have it.

This unfancied Welsh team has achieved what the great side of the 1970s and the Grand Slammers of the Ruddock/Gatland era failed to achieve.

They have beaten the All Blacks.

It sounds so good it’s worth saying again. They have beaten the All Blacks.

Their place in Welsh rugby folklore is assured.

What a performance, what a win, what a day.