Following the All Blacks’ 52-26 victory over Wales at the Principality Stadium, here are our five takeaways from the Quilter Nations Series clash.
The top line
Scott Robertson’s men extended the All Blacks‘ dominance over Wales by notching up their 34th successive victory, dating back to 1953.
The scoreline certainly flatters the visitors, who bounced back from their crushing defeat to England at Twickenham to end 2025 in the black.
Wales produced a brave performance as they chased the most unlikely of wins over New Zealand, with Tom Rogers crossing for a 43-minute hat-trick with the first two tries keeping his side within touching distance at half-time (14-24).
While he would cross for a third to further cut the deficit in the second half, Wales’ ill-discipline cost Steve Tandy’s side as two yellow cards gave the All Blacks the momentum to run away with the result.
Caleb Clarke scored the first and last try of the game, with Ruben Love, Tamaiti Williams, Rieko Ioane and Sevu Reece (twice) grabbing five pointers in between.
All Blacks’ biggest work-on
A mixed bag for the All Blacks in 2025. Robertson’s side fell to a first-ever defeat to Los Pumas in Argentina, but retained the Bledisloe Cup and extended their unbeaten run at Eden Park, before being put to the sword by the Springboks in Wellington and England at Twickenham and almost upset by Scotland.
While the results have been mixed. One facet of the All Blacks’ game has been dismal in every single Test: their aerial game.
Today was no different and only emphasised with Rogers’ 43-minute hat-trick with all three tries coming from Robertson charges’ inability to pluck the ball out of the sky.
Damian McKenzie was the first culprit as he was beaten in the air by Louis Rees-Zammit. While the Welshman has the height advantage over the All Black, there was little excuse here for the New Zealander, who had a clear line of sight to the ball and could dominate the space with Rees-Zammit having to check his run and flight of the ball. Instead, Wales go charging away with the ball, quickly get it wide a phase later, and some ordinary defence from Ioane sees Rogers pick up a loose pass and race over for his first.
Love was at fault for the next two tries with the Hurricanes star criminally misjudging a kick completely, allowing it to bounce. Will Jordan got his back-three mate out of trouble, but his clearance was a poor one, and from the ensuing lineout, Williams dabs a cheeky kick through and again a poor read defensively from Ioane resulted in another Rogers score in the same corner.
Much like McKenzie’s error, Love had the opportunity to boss the drop zone but failed to do so, and the Welsh forwards tapped it back before Joe Hawkins threw a stunning long pass with Max Llewellyn breaking out wide before sending Rogers through for the hat-trick score.
There simply isn’t a more difficult kind of attack to defend than from turnover ball from a kick, as the opposition are in behind the first line and the defence must scramble and fast. Wales proved that fact today, and it’s an area of the game New Zealand simply have to fix if they are going to have any chance of winning the Greatest Rivalry Series with the Springboks next year.
Clarke certainly made an improvement in this area of the game when he returned, but frankly, their current standard under the high ball is simply not good enough. Is there a tier one team that the outlawing of the escorts has hurt more than New Zealand? Probably not.
Simply put, they cannot continue in this manner and the players in the squad have to take personal responsibility for their shortcomings under the high ball, and if they don’t, Robertson should axe them for players that can execute a skill that has become a required attribute for an outside back and fly-half in the modern game.
Tom Rogers does what even Shane Williams couldn’t
What a night for Rogers. The Scarlets flyer will be disappointed that there was no victory to cap it all off, but he achieved something that no other Wales international has done before him: score a hat-trick against the All Blacks.
The 26-year-old didn’t have too much to do for any of his three scores, but there’s an art to being in the right place at the right time, and he did that to perfection.
In the 37 previous meetings between these two proud rugby-playing nations, not once had a Welshman crossed for three tries against the men in black, despite the plethora of incredibly talented backs, including the likes of JPR Williams, Shane Williams, George North, and so on.
The name Tom Rogers will forever be etched in the history books, and while he will be disappointed with the result, he will always be able to say that he was the first Welshman to score a hat-trick in Wales red against the mighty All Blacks.
Soft moments cost Wales
There is no doubt about the fact that Wales are trending in an upward trajectory under new head coach Tandy. To be fair, the bar was set incredibly low, but today, they showed signs of a side that could return to their former glories.
However, soft moments were their undoing and allowed the All Blacks to take control of the match and pull away out of sight.
Clarke’s opener came off the back of continued pressure, but the space really opened up when Rees-Zammit failed to keep his width and was left in no-man’s land as the ball was fizzed out to the All Blacks winger to score.
After repelling another threatening attack from the New Zealanders, a poor goal-line dropout gave Wallace Sititi far too much real estate to canter deep into the Welsh half of the pitch. The kick was flat and gave his chaser no time to close down the space. That put the visitors on the front foot, and Love easily skinned Rhys Carre to score.
The next score came from really poor defence from Carre again, but he wasn’t helped by Taine Plumtree making a passive tackle so close to the line on Williams.
The back-to-back yellow cards meant that Wales played 20 of the final 40 minutes with 14 men, and with such an inexperienced squad, they were never going to be able to live with the All Blacks.
Who took their chance?
Robertson gave many of his fringe players a run-out today, and the results were mixed. Ioane returned to the centres, his first appearance since the Rugby Championship, and while he finished the match with a try and an assist, it was far from vintage, with the veteran back producing a mare again. His defence for the first two Rogers’ tries was well below par, and he was largely anonymous on attack. Jordie Barrett’s stint at Leinster did wonders for his form, and Robertson will be hoping that the same occurs for Ioane.
All Blacks fans have been baying for Love to get a chance and he finally got it as he was handed the number 15 jumper at the Principality Stadium. It looked like he vindicated that decision when he sliced through the Welsh defence and raced away for a try but his performance quickly unravelled from there. Twice his aerial skills were found wanting and twice Wales capitalised on it and when he looked to make up for the error the second time, his attempted cover tackle was just as woeful.
In the 54th minute, Robertson had seen enough and his point was proved. Love isn’t quite ready for the demands of Test rugby, but supporters will quickly fire back, if he got more opportunities through 2025, perhaps he would have fared better, and there is plenty of substance in that argument too.
Love’s replacement, Reece, certainly made the most of his opportunity, grabbing a brace of tries after spending much of 2025 carrying tackle bags.
Outside of his gaffe under the high ball, McKenzie was rather compelling and ran the attack well, making good decisions from the fly-half position in what could well have been his final audition before Richie Mo’unga returns. Sititi set the standard again while Clarke proved once again that he is the All Blacks’ best winger.
As for the Welsh, Rogers was outstanding and deserves his plaudits, as to does fellow winger Rees-Zammit. Plumtree worked tirelessly, but costly penalties remain a work in progress in his game, while Alex Mann muscled up yet again.