There are the same old songs in the stands at Cardiff, and on Saturdayit was the same old story on the pitch, too. Wales had reasons to believe that this game against New Zealand would be different to all the others they have played in the last seven decades: the All Blacks have lost four Tests already this year, had only just managed to scrape past Japan in Tokyo last week and were missing both their captain, Sam Cane, and the talismanic lock Brodie Retallick. Well, the game might have taken a fair few twists and turns but it finished up in exactly the same place as the last 32 between the teams. With New Zealand winning.
The final score, polished by a late flurry of three tries in the final few minutes, was 55-23, which equalled New Zealand’s record score against Wales set back in 2003. For long stretches the match was a lot closer than that makes it sound. In the periods either side of half-time the two teams traded tries and the match tipped crazily this way and that. Whenever Wales seemed to have hauled themselves back within reach, New Zealand would pull away again. Still, for those 40 minutes, the two teams fought on something close to level terms.
