They waited 72 years for this. Today, in front of 55,152 at the Principality Stadium, Wales finally beat the All Blacks.
Steve Tandy’s side won 35-28, outscoring New Zealand by five tries to four. Then they spent the last half-hour throwing their bodies in front of everything the world’s most famous rugby team could throw at them.
When the final whistle went, grown men in red wept on the pitch. In the stands, a crowd that had barely dared to believe let out 72 years of hurt.
Before today, New Zealand had won 35 of the 38 Tests between the two sides. Wales had won three, and the last of those was a 13-8 win in Cardiff on 19 December 1953.
A dream start
It took less than two minutes for the Principality to start believing.
Wales turned the All Blacks over outside their own 22, and Louis Rees-Zammit chipped ahead down the right. Tomos Williams read the bounce better than anyone in black, and the scrum-half was over.
Scarlets fly-half Sam Costelow converted, and three minutes later Wales struck again.
The lineout had let them down against Japan, but not today. Captain Dewi Lake found his jumper, Gabriel Hamer-Webb and Jac Morgan smashed into contact, and Lake burst over for 14-0.
Pegged back by the break
New Zealand do not panic, and they did not panic now. Wales stopped their driving maul, but scrum-half Cortez Ratima wriggled through two tackles to score.
Archie Griffin answered for the second Test running. Wales hammered away at the line, and the Bath tighthead muscled over on 23 minutes to make it 21-7.
The All-Black maul rumbled on, though. Hooker Asafo Aumua peeled off towards the line on 31 minutes, and number eight Wallace Sititi reached over.
Then came the sucker punch. Wales chose to keep the ball alive deep in their own half rather than kick it dead at the end of the first half, and it cost them.
A string of offloads and half-breaks later, wing Fehi Fineanganofo was over, three minutes into added time. Richie Mo’unga converted, and at 21-21 it felt like the old story was being written again.
James and Rees-Zammit strike
This Wales side had other ideas.
They came out after the break with fire in their eyes. Three minutes in, Tomos Williams fired a pass out to the left, and Scarlets centre Eddie James had the line at his mercy.
Five minutes later, Williams pulled the strings again. The ball was worked right, and Rees-Zammit dived over in front of a crowd that had found its voice.
Costelow converted both, five kicks from five. Wales led 35-21, and the Principality was rocking.
The All Blacks came straight back. James made a try-saving tackle, but flanker Peter Lakai hammered over in the next phase after a penalty, on 53 minutes.
Botham leads a wall of red
Nobody knew it then, but that was the last score of the afternoon. What followed was 27 minutes of the bravest defence Wales have produced in years.
The All Blacks camped inside the Wales 22, wave after wave of them, and every turnover was greeted like a try.
Scarlets back-rower Taine Plumtree came off the bench at number eight and won two priceless turnovers.
With 16 minutes left, the Ospreys half-backs Reuben Morgan-Williams and Dan Edwards were sent on to see it out.
Lakai broke clear and a fifth New Zealand try looked certain. Ospreys prop Gareth Thomas had other ideas, getting underneath Sititi to hold him up over the line.
Then James Botham did it again, denying hooker Asafo Aumua. New Zealand were held up three times in all, and still they kept coming.
Still Wales held. Their discipline never cracked, and they made 346 tackles across the 80 minutes.
Botham was named man of the match. Any one of the Welsh forwards who put their bodies on the line in that last half-hour could have taken it.
New Zealand had passed 50 points on each of their last three visits to Cardiff. This time they were held to 28.
The first win since 1953
Before kick-off, Lake said of the run of defeats: “I don’t think that I was alive for half of them.” Now he is the captain who ended it.
Tandy had told his players to look in the mirror this week, not at the aura around the All Blacks. They did exactly that, and their 35 points beats the 26 they managed last year, their previous best against New Zealand.
Wales took a five-point bonus-point win. New Zealand left with two bonus points, enough to move them above South Africa in the southern hemisphere table of the Nations Championship.
Australia next
It is Tandy’s fifth win in 14 Tests in charge, and by far his biggest. Australia come to the Principality next Saturday (8.10pm).
Wales: Blair Murray; Louis Rees-Zammit, Eddie James, Max Llewellyn, Gabriel Hamer-Webb; Sam Costelow, Tomos Williams; Nicky Smith, Dewi Lake (captain), Archie Griffin, Dafydd Jenkins, Adam Beard, James Botham, Jac Morgan, Taine Basham.
Replacements: Ryan Elias, Gareth Thomas, Dillon Lewis, Ben Carter, Taine Plumtree, Reuben Morgan-Williams, Dan Edwards, Louie Hennessey.
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