Here are the winners and losers from Saturday's Wales v New Zealand game that saw the All Blacks win 55-23.
WINNERS
Ardie Savea
The All Black No8 was dubbed “the best player on the planet” by Amazon pundit Jamie Roberts after his display.
Praise indeed. Perhaps that exalted tag is up for debate, but it gives you an idea of just how impressive the Hurricanes man was and what an influence a No8 right at the top of his game can have on a rugby match.
Probably the only thing Savea did wrong was dive over-enthusiastically for his second half try – he very nearly failed to ground the ball.
Other than that, he was simply world class.
He got over the gain-line time and again, but also displayed vision, pace and skill throughout.
He was his team’s talisman, the man who did more than any of his team mates to set up such an emphatic win.
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Ian Foster
The relief and pride was etched all over Ian Foster’s face after the final whistle.
Go back to the summer and the All Blacks coach was on the brink of the sack after the home series loss to Ireland.
The pressure almost told again when Argentina won on Kiwi turf in the Rugby Championship.
But this was the sort of performance, and margin of victory, that answered his most fervent critics.
As Foster himself pointed out, New Zealand have now gone five wins in a row.
Those wins may not have been the greatest in their history – they got home narrowly against Japan just before this one – but five wins is five wins.
If he can engineer something similar against England and Scotland in the coming weeks, he will look as secure in post as he has ever done.
Rio Dyer
There were some emotional scenes after the match, when the crowd had melted into the Cardiff night, of Dragons wing Rio Dyer embracing his family in the Principality Stadium stands.
His team may have lost, but his try-scoring performance on his debut made it a day to remember quite apart from it being his first Wales cap.
Dyer profited from a George North decoy run to slice through for a superb score in the 25th minute at a time Wales, who were 17-0 in arrears, desperately needed it.
The manner of the try reminded you of North’s own debut try against South Africa in 2010. It was a moment of searing quality.
Yes, Dyer was out-jumped by Jordie Barrett for New Zealand’s third try before half-time, but Barrett had the run on him and he should not beat himself up about the incident.
A proud day for Dyer, who you would think will be seen a whole lot more at this level.
Aaron Smith
You might have picked any number of New Zealand individuals for particular praise, but Smith definitely deserves singling out.
The 34-year-old now has 113 caps but is showing no signs of being past it.
He crossed for two tries and his first one was a quite brilliant individual effort which came at a critical time early in the second half when Wales had just got themselves back to 22-16 behind.
Smith’s opportunism, vision and skill epitomised the gulf in class between the two sides.
Losers
Wayne Pivac
The day was dismal for the Wales coach for more reasons than just this defeat in isolation.
There was a small handful of positive individual performances to cling to, but other than that very little evidence Wales are progressing in the right direction.
Pivac won’t be the first Wales coach to find himself under pressure at this time of year, but that’s exactly where he is.
Wales need to beat Argentina and Australia to finish this campaign in credit, but any money going on them to do so will be sparing.
Winning on South African soil for the first ever time in the summer, albeit against a weakened Springbok side, provided him temporary immunity from the critics. He’s already in need of a booster.
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This isn’t the first time New Zealand have left us all feeling despondent about the future of the Wales rugby team, but the bigger picture is concerning.
Wales appear to be drifting at best as the World Cup draws nearer and losing ground to Six Nations rivals France, England and Ireland.
There are probably reasons for that beyond what Pivac is doing with the national side.
But if Wales can’t improve in the coming months his tenure will not last longer than the one four-year cycle.
The Wales back row
It’s a department which has rightly been identified as one of enormous strength for Wales.
We have produced any number of top operators in all three berths.
But this was a day when our triumvirate at the base of the scrum were outclassed.
Justin Tipuric, in his first Test match back since a long injury absence, was understandably a little off the pace, and subsequently below his usual high standards.
With Taulupe Faletau you know it’s a case of class being permanent, but he was put in the shade by the incredible display of his opposite number Ardie Savea and also gave away too many penalties at the breakdown.
Tommy Reffell was culpable for Smith’s mesmerising first try when he was too slow to react to the scrum-half’s break off a scrum.
Doubtless these three – who are far more used to plaudits than brickbats - will come good again.
But this was not a day to remember for any of them.
Alun Wyn Jones
The old master came on as a half-time replacement and didn’t do too much wrong.
But was this defeat the end of his quest to finish on the winning side against New Zealand for his country? You’d have to think so.
This was his 14th attempt and it ended in the same way as the previous ones.
Yes, he was part of the Lions Test team that toppled the All Blacks in the second Test in 2017, but not quite the same.
He will likely be galled that so many of his English and Irish friends in that Lions party managed it with their countries.
He’s achieved so much but this is one box he is never going to tick now.
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