All Blacks v Wales Stat Attack

The All Blacks defeated Wales this past Sunday in the second leg of their end of year Northern tour. Some fact and figures from the match by Peter Marriott below. 

New Zealand v Wales: Won 55-23

The seventh test the All Blacks ever played was against Wales at the old Cardiff Arms Park in Cardiff, on 16 December 1905. The All Blacks had won every one of their first six test matches but against Wales they suffered their first-ever defeat. In a controversial encounter which is still referred to as the “Dean’s Match” Wales won 3-0.

Wales won two of the next three tests played by the two sides but since their 13-8 victory at Cardiff on 19 December 1953 they have not won again. There have now been 33 matches played since then and the All Blacks have won every one of them. This is also their longest sequence of consecutive wins against any country.

Wales has now gone 68 years and 322 days since they last beat the All Blacks.

New Zealand and Wales have met on 37 occasions: New Zealand has won 34 times to Wales three. Wales is the only one of the four Home Nations sides the All Blacks have never drawn against and they have beaten them more often than they have England (33 wins), Ireland (30) and Scotland (29).

This was the sixth time the All Blacks have scored 50 or more points against Wales. By coincidence, those six instances can be split into three separate occasions in which the All Blacks scored half a century of points in successive matches. In 1988 they won 52-3 and 54-9 at Christchurch and Auckland respectively, in 2003 the scores were 55-3 and 53-37 at Hamilton and Sydney (a Rugby World Cup Pool Match), and more recently 54-16 and this match 55-23, in 2021 and 2022, both played in Cardiff.

Only Italy (10), Argentina and Fiji (seven each) have had 50 points scored against them more times by the All Blacks than against Wales.

The All Blacks have actually scored 50 or more points in a test on 77 occasions: That represents 12.4% of their total matches played.

The All Blacks 55 points equals their highest score against Wales (also at Hamilton in 2003) but it is their best-ever recorded in a test in Wales bettering their 54-16 win last year.

Wales passed 20 points in a test against New Zealand for just the sixth time in 37 tests. Their 23 points in this match have only been bettered three times: they lost 37-53 at Sydney in 2003, lost 25-26 at Cardiff in 2004 (these matches were successive) and lost 25-37 at Cardiff in 2010.

The All Blacks scored a record eight tries during the match, the most in any test in Wales. The former record of seven tries was set in the previous match in Cardiff last year.

Wales has only bettered their two tries once before at home: they scored three in 1935 when they narrowly beat New Zealand 13-12.

The All Blacks made 11 changes to their starting line-up against Wales from the side which appeared against Japan the previous week. Seven of those changes were in the forwards and four in the backs.

The combined number of caps (398) by the backs who started against Wales was the All Blacks highest against any side since they totalled 404 in the Rugby World Cup Play-off match at Chofu in 2019, also against Wales.

The Barrett brothers have between them brought up 1000 points for New Zealand in test matches. Beauden has contributed the most (717), Jordie (256) and Scott (30). Added together their total is 1003 and those points
are made up collectively of 69 tries, 206 conversions, 80 penalties and two drop goals. To Beauden fell the honour of scoring the 1000th point when he converted Jordie’s second try in the 77th minute.

Together the Barrett’s have scored 5.7% of all the All Blacks test points but Dan Carter, on his own, can claim 9.0% of the total.

Jordie Barrett’s two tries took his total in 46 matches to 22 and he also passed 250 points in all tests. His total now sits on 256. They were his first tries against Wales.

Codie Taylor also scored two tries. They were his first against Wales and he now has a total of 18 in 74 appearances.

Aaron Smith was the third player to score a brace of tries. He now has 23 to his name and like the other two they were his first against Wales.

In this match Smith became the most capped back for the All Blacks in tests. It was his 113th appearance and he surpasses Daniel Carter who played 112 tests between 2003 and 2015.

The other two try scorers were Ardie Savea (his total is 20 in 68 tests) and Samisoni Taukei’aho (nine in 19 tests). These two also scored for the first time against Wales and with his 20 tries Ardie Savea brought up 100 points in tests.

Ardie Savea also received the Player of the Match award.

Richie Mo’unga kicked 11 points in the match to take his tally for the year to 95 points.

Beauden Barrett kicked four points, his first attempts at goal in any match since the All Blacks played Argentina at Robina in September last year. There were 18 tests in between.

Ofa Tu’ungafasi appeared in his 50th test. He is the third to do so for the All Blacks this year (Scott Barrett and Rieko Ioane went before him) and is the 66th overall to reach this milestone. Of his 50 appearances, 40 have been as a replacement.

Brad Weber played in his first match of the year and took the total number of players who have appeared in at least one match in 2022 to 42. This is the same number as in 2021 and the last time more played was in 2018 when 48 appeared.

Sam Whitelock took over the captaincy from an injured Sam Cane. It was his second test in charge this year and 16th overall. His first test as All Black captain was also against Wales: in Cardiff in 2017. Whitelock won his first 12 tests before losing for the first time. His two losses were in consecutive tests but he has won the following two (both in 2022). His overall winning average when leading the side is 87.5. Only Kieran Read (19) and Brian Lochore (14) had a better record than Whitelock before suffering their first loss. Lochore finished his captaincy with a winning average of 83.3: for Read it was 82.7.

New Zealand’s side included seven players who were born overseas. Two are from Australia, one each from Fiji and Japan, and three from Tonga. Altogether a total of 14 players who were born outside New Zealand, have made at least one test appearance this year.

Three New Zealand players had not previously played against Wales: Caleb Clarke, Ethan de Groot and Fletcher Newell.
The All Blacks overall test record after this match is: played 623, won 479 (76.9%), lost 122 and drawn 22.

Two players made their debut for Wales. Rio Dyer, who started, scored a try and Sam Costelow, who was a last minute addition to the side, went on as a replacement.

Wales’ second try was scored by the captain Justin Tipuric. It was his 11th try in 86 test matches for his country, and his first against New Zealand. He is the 25th player to captain Wales in a test match against New Zealand.

Six players, excluding the two debutants, had not previously played against the All Blacks. They were Kieran Hardy, Louis Rees-Zammit, Tommy Reffell, Gareth Thomas, Nick Tomkins and Christ Tshiunza.

Wales’ side included seven players who were born overseas. Four were born in England, one in Tonga, one, Christ Tshiunza, in Kinshasa (the Democratic Republic of the Congo), and Gareth Anscombe who was born in New Zealand.
Gareth Anscombe played his third test match against the All Blacks and his 13 points took his overall total against the country of his birth to 19 points. He did not miss any of his five attempts at goal.

Referee Wayne Barnes was in charge of his 100th test match and of those 21 have involved New Zealand.

The All Blacks have won 13 times and lost eight. Barnes now shares the record for most tests by a referee with Nigel Owens.