Wales may still be searching for a victory in New Zealand but they won the respect they craved from All Black supporters ahead of next year's World Cup.
All week long the Welsh coach, Warren Gatland, has mounted a public relations assault in Hamilton, his hometown and Wales's base in 15 months' time, in an attempt to find favour, but no matter how many schools and Maori villages visited, the bigger impact came from the final 15 minutes at the Waikato Stadium.
Instead of crumbling, as has been their habit against the All Blacks, Wales stood firm in defence and then mounted a prolonged attack which might have seen them score twice before Jamie Roberts finally got over the line to pull the lead back to 22-10 and cancel out Cory Jane's first-half try.
"The pleasing thing about today's performance is that the All Blacks tend to get stronger from game to game, particularly at the start of their campaigns, and these guys could have thought about getting on the plane tomorrow and going on holiday for six weeks and they didn't do that," Gatland said. "That is what I was really proud of. They showed some character out there and they wore that jersey with some real pride and as coaches that's what you're looking for."
After struggling at the scrum all game while making a rash of handling errors, the All Blacks looked a long way from the side intent on reclaiming the Webb Ellis Trophy on home ground. In those final hectic moments Roberts was held up over the line, Jonathan Davies should have scored, but instead of looking outside to Leigh Halfpenny he suffered a bad dose of white-line fever before Wales discovered the patience needed to suck in defenders and make space out wide.
When it came, two minutes from time, Roberts was strong enough to brush off what remained of the cover defence, and had Jonathan Kaplan blown for full time none of the home fans would have had cause to complain. For much of the second half they were silenced by the ferocity of a side meant to run out of puff and roll over long before the final quarter.
Unfortunately for Wales, the whistle stayed silent. All Black captain Richie McCaw strode up the left and when the ball moved across field, Aaron Cruden, on for Dan Carter, stabbed the ball behind the Welsh defence. An evil bounce did the rest, wrong-footing Lee Byrne, for the 21-year-old replacement to touch down.
The conversion made it a 19-point victory, but New Zealand looked well short of being potential world champions. They fielded the most experienced front row in All Black history – 180 caps between them – but still got shoved around. The lineout wobbled, the handling was poor and, even allowing for seven changes, the cutting edge of Carisbrook a week ago was missing.
It did not help that Graham Henry threw seven more changes on after half-time, but South Africa are the first visitors in the Tri-Nations in a fortnight and the reigning champions will be looking to make points as well as score them. In their three June Tests, beating Ireland once and Wales twice, New Zealand have scored 15 tries, but yesterday it was the boot of Carter which saw them home.
Wales come home empty-handed yet again, but they did at least score a try against the All Blacks which they had not done since 2006 in Cardiff. Gatland will also be pleased at the rapid improvement in Bradley Davies and game time for Dan Biggar against top-drawer opposition.
The Ospreys fly-half is clearly not short on confidence, sending a booming kick 60 metres and side-stepping out of defence in the first five minutes. There were defensive lapses, as when the impressive Richard Kahui ran through the 20-year-old, but when James Hooks's shoulder is repaired the Welsh will got to the World Cup with plenty of midfield options to use the ball their scrum will win them.
NEW ZEALAND Muliaina; Jane, Kahui, Stanley (Ranger 55), Guildford; Carter (Cruden 70), Cowan (Weepu 48); Woodcock (Franks 55), Mealamu, Tialata, Thorn, Donnelly (Thomson 48), Kaino, McCaw (capt), Read (Whitelock 63)
Tries Jane, Cruden Cons Carter, Weepu Pens Carter 5
WALES Byrne; Halfpenny, J Davies, Roberts, Prydie (Harries 69); Biggar (S Jones 66), Phillips (R Rees 66); James, M Rees (Bennett 66), A Jones (Mitchell 63), B Davies (D Jones 55), AW Jones, J Thomas, G Thomas, R Jones (capt; McCusker 25)
Try Roberts Con S Jones Pen Halfpenny
Waikato Stadium
Game rating 6/10 Referee Jonathan Kaplan (SA)
