MEDIA REACTION: All Blacks in 'Harlem Globetrotter mode', Wales a 'sorry rabble'

British and New Zealand media hailed a ruthless demolition job by the All Blacks, who continued their 68-year unbeaten run against Wales by hammering the understrength hosts 54-16 in Cardiff on Sunday (AEDT).

Beauden Barrett scored two tries in this 100th Test but once again New Zealand exhibited their sensational depth, sweeping aside Welsh resistance late in the game.

The match had been marked as a likely mis-match after it was scheduled outside the international window, costing Wales may of their front liners.

Ian Foster’s men were in no mood to go easy.

“The Welsh Rugby Union signed a Faustian pact to play this match outside the international window and the devils in their black made them pay the steepest of prices for their avarice,” wrote Daniel Schofield in the UK Telegraph.

“The seven-try defeat was not half as painful of the sight of Alun Wyn Jones going off with a shoulder injury in the first half.

“In the circumstances – without 20 players and losing their talisman 20 minutes into the game – Wales just about exited with held their heads high. Competitive for 60 minutes, they collapsed in the final quarter as the All Blacks went into full Harlem Globetrotters mode. The Principality Stadium was half empty by the time Beauden Barrett, who started and finished the scoring with intercept tries, dived over in the corner to cap his 100th Test cap in style.”

(Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)

Andy Bull, in The Guardian, preferred to look on the bright side for the return of full voiced international rugby.

“In those first few moments, in the silence that fell for the Haka, and the first swell of Cwm Rhondda that followed, all the worries, whys, and wherefores about Wales’ missing players, the wrangle between clubs and countries, and what it all means about the state of the international game, slipped out of mind. For the minute, at least, none of it seemed to matter so much,” wrote Bull.

“At the end 80,000 fans headed out into the night, ready for another drink, or three, maybe a bite to eat, and a regretful word or two about what Wales should have done differently. It finished up an ugly defeat, but the disappointment was leavened with some happiness that Test rugby was back. As for the win, well, there’s always next time.

Wales last beat New Zealand in 1953 and this outfit was never a serious challenger to that dismal record.

“The more things change, the more things stay the same,” Delme Parfit wrote for Wales online.

“By the final 15 minutes Wales were out on their feet, the All Blacks running riot. It was real connoisseur’s stuff, the outcome of the game long since decided.

“And it was yet more proof that all the observations we’ve made for the last half a century about Wales being unable to counter New Zealand intensity ring as true today as ever they did.”

Stuart Barnes, writing in The Times, was in awe of New Zealand’s depth off the bench.

“This is where New Zealand are light years ahead of the rest of the world,” he wrote. “Even on an average day like yesterday they have that capacity to score tries in an instant. Wales lacked the same power on the bench. Where Pivac emptied his, he weakened Wales, Ian Foster, the New Zealand coach, brought an explosion of pace and power on to the field.”

Robert Kitson, in The Guardian, noted that last Wales win was the same year that New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Norgay Tensing conquered Mt Everest.

“At no stage did it remotely look as if the hosts were about to scale that still-elusive peak under the bright Cardiff lights, particularly after losing the totemic Alun Wyn Jones to a shoulder injury inside the first quarter,” wrote Kitson.

“The All Blacks were a speck on the horizon by the end, despite not always being at their fluent, all-dancing best.”

The New Zealand media are used to watching the All Blacks tear all asunder, and continue to enjoy it heartily.

“There were portents of doom hanging over the Test in Cardiff, mostly driven by fears Wales were vulnerable because they weren’t able to access all of their best players,” Gregor Paul wrote in the New Zealand Herald.

“The fears proved to be entirely founded in the end as Wales were duly torn apart and reduced to a sorry rabble, unsure where to go or what to do by the last 20 minutes.

“But while the carnage duly arrived as predicted, the source wasn’t so much the lack of quality within the Welsh team, but the abundance of it within the All Blacks.

“Wales could have had every player in the land available, even played with a few extra and they most likely still would have withered and then sunk without a trace against an All Blacks team that produced a patient, disciplined and impressively controlled effort.

“The Welsh will have sat in their changing room after this one and known they were blown off the park by a team that was light years ahead in speed of thought and movement.”

Marc Hinton, writing for Stuff, picked out No.8 Ardie Savea as his main man, with Beauden Barrett getting named the official man of the match.

“It was Beauden Barrett’s big night for the All Blacks but Ardie Savea who produced the signature performance to apply the stamp of class to another runaway victory over Wales at the Principality Stadium,” wrote Hinton.

“In the end Ian Foster’s All Blacks found some rhythm and flow in their game over a surging second half to run away from the Welsh for a 54-16, seven tries to one, victory. It wasn’t quite the dominant display that many had predicted, with the under-strength home side hanging tough for the first half, but in the end showcased the gulf in class between the two lineups that many had been predicting in the lead-in.”