Wales Stun All Blacks 35-28 to End 73-Year Wait in Cardiff

Wales produced one of the great upsets in rugby history on Saturday, beating New Zealand 35-28 at Principality Stadium in Cardiff for their first victory over the All Blacks in 73 years.

The win ended a run of 34 consecutive defeats against New Zealand stretching back to a 13-8 triumph at Cardiff Arms Park on 19 December 1953, against a side that had scored 50 points or more on each of their last three visits to Cardiff.

A flying start Wales never gave up

Scrum-half Tomos Williams crossed in the second minute, and Wales led 14-0 inside the first seven minutes after hooker Dewi Lake crashed over. Prop Archie Griffin added a third try to make it 21-7, before New Zealand hit back through Cortez Ratima and Wallace Sititi, and a length-of-the-field try from Fehi Fineanganofo on the stroke of half-time levelled the scores at 21-21.

Wales began the second half as they had the first: Williams set up Eddie James in the corner, and Louis Rees-Zammit crossed for a fifth Welsh try to make it 35-21. Peter Lakai pulled one back in the 53rd minute, but nobody scored again, and Sam Costelow’s five conversions from five attempts proved the difference.

Williams was at the heart of everything, with a hand in all five Welsh tries. They were the most Wales have ever scored against New Zealand, and the seven-point margin was their biggest in the fixture.

A defensive stand for the ages

The victory was built on a defensive effort that bordered on the extraordinary. Wales made 305 tackles to New Zealand’s 122, with lock Dafydd Jenkins leading on 36, followed by James Botham on 26 and Jac Morgan on 25.

The All Blacks, who enjoyed 65 per cent of the possession and 63 per cent of the territory, were held up over the Welsh line three times in the final 25 minutes, as Sititi, Xavier Numia and Leicester Fainga’anuku were all denied. Two attacks of more than 20 phases were turned over by replacement Taine Plumtree deep inside the Welsh 22.

“It felt like a brick wall at times,” All Blacks captain Beauden Barrett said afterwards. “It’s a tough one to take, particularly when we were building pressure and couldn’t convert.”

New Zealand coach Dave Rennie was generous in defeat, telling reporters: “They were the better side tonight.” The Associated Press described the result as perhaps the biggest upset in Test rugby since Japan defeated South Africa at the 2015 World Cup.

From rock bottom to history

The scale of the upset is hard to overstate. Wales finished last in the Six Nations, sit second from bottom in the northern hemisphere pool, had gone more than two years without a home Test win, and only narrowly beat Japan 28-21 last weekend.

Even the crowd told the story of a side written off by its own public: just over 55,000 attended, around 20,000 short of a sell-out and the lowest for a Wales-New Zealand match since the national stadium opened in 1999. It was only Wales’ fourth win over the All Blacks since the sides first met in 1905.

Captain Dewi Lake, who flattened Scott Barrett on his way over for the second try, said the difficult weeks had fuelled the performance. “I think the bad times drive you to want more and also it taught us we can be in a game in so many different ways,” Lake told Welsh television channel S4C. “I’m very proud how the boys answered the questions from last week.”

Head coach Steve Tandy, a Welshman in his second November in charge, has now done what four New Zealand coaches of Wales — Graham Henry, Steve Hansen, Warren Gatland and Wayne Pivac — never managed: beat the land of their birth. “It’s not about me but the players and the supporters,” Tandy said. “The boys have created history, they have to celebrate and enjoy the moment.”

What happens next

Despite the defeat, New Zealand still lead the southern hemisphere table by a point, having taken two bonus points — one for four tries, one for finishing within seven. They travel to face England at Twickenham next Saturday, where a bonus-point win would put them in the final on 29 November. South Africa return to the top of the world rankings after France beat them in Paris on Friday night.

Wales host Australia in Cardiff next Saturday, a side that now believes anything is possible. It capped a dramatic weekend of international sport, days after the United States pulled its under-17 team out of the World Cup in Qatar over security fears. A Test the stadium had struggled to sell became a game in which every point mattered — and Wales, at last, had all the ones that counted.