Tom Rogers makes hat-trick history in vain as New Zealand surge past Wales

Another week, another Welsh defeat. This latest one was 52-26, and if you missed it, it will look like just another in their long list of losses to New Zealand, which now stretches back 34 matches to 1953.

But it’s just possible, too, that, for the men who coached it and played in it, for the tens of thousands in the ground, and the hundreds of thousands watching on TV, it may yet come to stand for something more significant than that. Wales did not turn a corner, but they took a little look around one and got a glimpse of what the future might look like with Steve Tandy in charge.

Three times, the All Blacks stretched ahead by scoring a try, the first of them three minutes in, and three times the Welsh managed to haul their way back into the things by scoring one of their own almost straight away.

They were all finished by Scarlets’ wing Tom Rogers, who became the first Welshman to score a hat-trick against New Zealand. But they belonged just as much to his teammates, especially Tomos Williams, who made one with a tricky grubber kick, Louis Rees-Zammit, who set up another with a superb catch, and Joe Hawkins, who made the third with a fine long pass.

Five minutes into the second half, it was 24-21, only the one penalty kick by Damian McKenzie between the teams. Two of New Zealand’s three tries came from lineouts, one a simple finish by Caleb Clarke, the other an even simpler one by Tamaiti Williams off the back of a driving maul. The other was a brilliant finish by Ruben Love, who slipped through a gap in the defence with the help of a dummy and a step, and sprinted 30 metres to score.

It was about now that New Zealand slipped into a higher gear. They scored three tries in 10 minutes. Two were disallowed, one for a knock-on, another after replays showed Rogers had just managed to hold the ball up. But the third, which wasn’t awarded because the referee suspected there had been a knock-on from a crossfield kick, was given to Rieko Ioane after replays on TV.

From then on, things started to fall apart. First, Gareth Thomas was sent to the sin-bin, then just as he was coming back on, Taine Plumtree went off too.

New Zealand scored three more in the final quarter, two by Sevu Reece. But Wales did manage to pull another back themselves, after some superb work by Blair Murray and Louis Rees-Zammit. The stadium came alive then, even though their team was trailing, they were proud to have something to shout about, and a sight of the first stirrings of improvement against one of the world’s best teams.