Wales beat New Zealand 35-28 at the Principality Stadium on Saturday, a first victory over the All Blacks in 73 years, BBC Sport reported. Steve Tandy's side ended a 34-match losing sequence that stretched back to 1953, in a nine-try Nations Championship match that Wales led 14-0, 21-7 and 35-21 before holding on through a defensive last quarter. Tries came from scrum-half Tomos Williams, captain Dewi Lake, prop Archie Griffin, centre Eddie James and wing Louis Rees-Zammit, with Sam Costelow converting all five. New Zealand answered through Cortez Ratima, Wallace Sititi, Fehi Fineanganofo and Peter Lakai, with Richie Mo'unga kicking four conversions. The attendance of 55,152 was the lowest of the 14 Wales-New Zealand Tests at the stadium.
Wales struck inside the first six minutes. After Nicky Smith won a turnover, a long pass from Williams released Rees-Zammit, who chipped ahead for Williams to score. Lake then finished a forward move off a flat Williams pass, the first time Wales had led New Zealand by 14 points. New Zealand recovered, Ratima scoring from an attacking line-out, and the sides went in 21-21 at half-time after Sititi and Fineanganofo crossed. James and Rees-Zammit scored early in the second half before Lakai replied. In the closing quarter, Wales, led by flankers James Botham and Jac Morgan and lock Dafydd Jenkins, held the All Blacks up over the line three times.
Wales had won the fixture in 1905, 1935 and 1953 and then waited more than seven decades. Some bookmakers offered 20-1 against a home win, and sections of the New Zealand media had belittled Welsh rugby beforehand. Tandy made four changes from the side that beat Japan 28-21 last weekend, including a first Test start in four years for Taine Basham. New Zealand made eight starting changes from the team that beat Scotland 43-21, and Beauden Barrett was handed the Test captaincy for the first time in his 149th international. Wales still leapfrogged no one in the visitors' section; New Zealand, the BBC noted, moved to the top of the southern pool after France beat South Africa on Friday, with one weekend of regular matches left.
The verified result is a 35-28 home win and a hoodoo broken, not a claim that Welsh rugby's longer problems have vanished. It is, as the match report put it, a performance to set beside the lean years, and a scoreline the 1953 vintage never posted in a world where tries are now worth five points.