Wales battle to historic win over New Zealand

Nation.Cymru staff/agencies

Wales ended a 73-year wait for victory over New Zealand as they held off a late All Blacks onslaught to win 35-28 in the Nations Championship at the Principality Stadium.

Steve Tandy’s side scored five tries against New Zealand for the first time and held the visitors up over the line three times in the closing stages to end a run of 34 successive defeats in the fixture.

Louis Rees-Zammit set up the opening try for Tomos Williams after just 80 seconds and scored Wales’ fifth. Sam Costelow converted all five tries in front of a crowd of 55,152 in Cardiff.

Player of the match James Botham told S4C: “I honestly can’t describe the feeling.

“I imagine everyone was writing us off, obviously the last win was 1953, so to get that historic win now just shows how far we’ve come and how much we’re gelling as a team.

“I can’t wait for the next game already.”

New Zealand head coach Dave Rennie had made eight changes to the starting side that beat Scotland in their previous Nations Championship match. The All Blacks were two tries down inside six minutes.

Rees-Zammit had room to run on his first touch but opted to kick over the defence, with Williams winning the race to ground the ball. Wales took a more direct route for their second try four minutes later when Dewi Lake powered over from close range. Costelow’s conversion made it 14-0.

Cortez Ratima replied in the 10th minute after New Zealand won clean lineout ball, and Richie Mo’unga’s conversion cut the gap to seven. Rees-Zammit continued to threaten out wide, but Wales’ third try came from their forwards as Archie Griffin went over following a lineout in the 24th minute. Costelow restored the 14-point lead.

Wallace Sititi brought the All Blacks back into the game nine minutes before half-time before Fehi Fineanganofo finished a well-worked move to draw them level.

Half-time

Mo’unga converted both tries to make it 21-21, the first time since 2016 that Wales had gone in at half-time without trailing New Zealand.

Wales needed just four minutes of the second half to regain the lead through Eddie James, whose Scarlets teammate Costelow added the extras. Rees-Zammit then crossed unopposed and another Costelow conversion made it 35-21. It was the third time Wales had led by 14 points.

Peter Lakai’s try in the 53rd minute, converted by Mo’unga, left the All Blacks within a converted try with more than a quarter of the match still to play.

New Zealand kept pressing for a fifth try of their own and got over the Welsh line three times. Each time, Wales prevented them from grounding the ball. There were tears among the players at the final whistle as the Principality Stadium celebrated a victory seven decades in the making.