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?
GBS I have been trying to post for the last 10 min. Nothing going through. Now maybe this will..hehe.
Wales with that breakway near the end thought they would score but just far too slow and no back up there.
The blog did play up a bit… I had to fix it in between updates, watching the game and attempting to post comments… it’s running smoothly again, though.
Yes my last post went through quick.
GBS you think we can win next week against France? Going to be tough. Think we going to miss JdV at inside centre and F. Steyn at FB. Still a great team and hoping that we win it. Then 3/zip to the SH teams agains the NH teams.
Not counting our Dirt Tracker team as that was not our best players. Only counting the Tests.
Message for Carol,
Carol hope you had a great time at the game today. That stadium looked awesome.
Close game too.
Cheers GBS.
Out of here now.
94@ Puma – Depending which France Team pitches, of course the Bokke could win….. but I’m much less confident than before… suddenly.
This week’s preparation will be telling… and maybe the scare we had will be a good thing.
The NH is not far behind the SH, like they were last year…
Will be interesting to hear and see who runs in the positions previously filled by Jean and Fransie and Juan and Spies…. suppose it will be Adi and Zane and Schalla and Kanko….
I’m not happy about Adi though… and certainly I think Kanko is a bit light in the pants for a game against France, who will have big forwards and know how to play a tight game.
100 lang dik mieliessssss
OK, time to go horizontal…. active but horizontal.
Follow suit, it’s fun…. hehehe
GBS. Just read that Chili and Steenkamp coming home with injuries. W. du Preez and A. Strauss to take their place. They fly out tomorrow I think.
JdP has a hand injury but staying on the tour for now.
Cheers boet out of here now.
98 – GBS Players are also tired. Been playing since mid Feb until CC as a lot of Boks are in the Bulls side.
Hope Deysel makes the bench. I like D. Potgieter too but think in those conditions Deysel will be a better bet for the bench. Very strong when carrying the ball.
Cheers boet slaap goed ou maat.
96 Puma – Hi there Puma, We have had a great day, shame Wales could not pull it off, not the most startling rugby played today it has to be said, although it suddenley (When all was lost) livened up a bit!!.
I took some shocking photos of the match….rather poor selection I have sent some to GBS!! 🙂 I had camera wobble!!
101 GBS – Falling asleep sounds like a great option to me right now!! 😉
Night All in Rugby Talk Land…..
Hope you enjoued a bit of our NH rugby today, well the singing is good!! 😆
Hahahah – Looks familiar!!
Hey Puma, now I am ‘revealed’!! Must go back to the party here…..catch up soon!!
107 – Carol, You look great. Thanks for the pics.
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