The All Blacks kicked off their Northern Hemisphere Tour with a Test against Wales. The All Blacks won a generally scrappy affair which only really only came alive in the last 20 minutes. The All Blacks won 19 / 12.

The All Blacks drew first blood after just more than 10 minutes, a Dan Carter Penalty, making it 3 / 0.

Wales drew level with a penalty of their own by Stephen Jones…

Again the All Blacks went ahead through the boot of Carter and again Stephen Jones equalised.

The First half ended tied, 6 / 6.

The First Half was characterised by aimless kicking, hard and uncompromising forward play and lots of guts, but it was boring rugby.

After Halftime, the All Blacks upped the ante, less aimless kicking and more direct running and it started showing on the score board, firstly through a Dan Carter penalty, then through a hard driving try by Andrew Hore, converted by Dan Carter.

Then another Dan Carter penalty followed and the score had ballooned to 19 / 6 for the All Blacks.

With Jimmy Cowan having replaced the pedantic Brendon Leonard, there was more fluidity in the backline.

Wales was not done yet and upped their own tempo as well, then came back with 2 Stephen Jones penalties and with a few minutes to play they were within 7 points.

They threw everything at the All Blacks in an attempt to level the scores but the All Black defense held, denying the Welsch the magic come-back.

Man of the match was awarded to Dan Carter.

 

Points:

Wales: 4 Penalties Stephen Jones

All Blacks: 4 Penalties & 1 Conversion Dan Carter, 1 Try Andrew Hore

 

Teams:

Wales: 15 James Hook, 14 Leigh Halfpenny, 13 Tom Shanklin, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Shane Williams, 10 Stephen Jones, 9 Gareth Cooper, 8 Ryan Jones (captain), 7 Martyn Williams, 6 Andy Powell, 5 Luke Charteris, 4 Alun-Wyn Jones, 3 Paul James, 2 Matthew Rees, 1 Gethin Jenkins
Replacements: 16 Huw Bennett, 17 Duncan Jones, 18 Bradley Davies, 19 Dafydd Jones, 20 Martin Roberts, 21 Jonathan Davies, 21 Tom James

New Zealand: 15 Mils Muliaina, 14 Cory Jane, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Ma’a Nonu, 11 Zac Guildford, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Brendon Leonard, 8 Kieran Read, 7 Richie McCaw (captain), 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Jason Eaton, 4 Brad Thorn, 3 Neemia Tialata, 2 Andrew Hore, 1 Wyatt Crockett.
Replacements: 16 Corey Flynn, 17 Owen Franks, 18 Tom Donnelly, 19 Adam Thomson, 20 Jimmy Cowan, 21 Stephen Donald, 22 Ben Smith.

Date: Saturday, November 7
Venue: Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
Kick-off: 19.30 SA Time (17.30 GMT, 06.30 NZ Time – Sunday, November 8 )
Expected weather conditions: Light rain showers. Maximum 10°C. The weather could be negate if the stadium roof is closed.
Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Mark Lawrence (South Africa), Stuart Terheege (England)
TMO: Graham Hughes (England)

Some Photo’s of the match… and our fellow blogger who was there… wonder if you could guess who this was?

WRS & Friends

 

 

Outside the Stadium

 

 

Carol

 

 

Pre-match Entertainment

 

 

Where's the ball

 

 

Scrummmmmmmm

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