All Blacks hammer spirited Wales to end year on a high but questions remain over Scott Robertson’s side

The All Blacks finished their 2025 campaign on a winning note after they claimed a 52-26 triumph over a spirited Wales side at the Principality Stadium.

New Zealand made mass alterations for this encounter but they were still expected to dispatch the struggling Welsh comfortably.

Scott Robertson’s outfit managed to just about achieve that aim but it was still a pretty underwhelming display, certainly for 50 minutes, as questions remain heading into 2026.

The visitors only held a 24-21 lead at the start of the second period with Tom Rogers’ hat-trick keeping Wales in touch after Caleb Clarke, Ruben Love and Tamaiti Williams had crossed the whitewash for the All Blacks.

Only when the bench came on did they truly manage to assert their dominance as Sevu Reece’s brace, allied by a Rieko Ioane try and another for Clarke, secured the victory, despite Louis Rees-Zammit’s consolation.

Click here for teams and scorers

While it might have been a much-changed All Blacks outfit, the visitors were still massive favourites and the opening to the game felt rather ominous.

They initially ruled the aerial exchanges, dominated physically and forced the Welshmen to infringe on a couple of occasions. That duly set up the position for their first try as Love sent Clarke across the whitewash.

It was the ideal opening for an under pressure New Zealand side, but their old problems began to haunt them when Louis Rees-Zammit beat Damian McKenzie in the air.

Wales had the momentum with their opponents in retreat and a well timed off-load from Dan Edwards enabled Rogers to touch down unopposed.

Robertson would have no doubt been frustrated by their continual issues under the high ball but he was slightly happier a few minutes later when they opened up a 10-point buffer.

Firstly, McKenzie kicked a penalty before Love slipped through Rhys Carre’s poor attempted tackle to go over, which the fly-half converted.

Carre was also partially at fault for the All Blacks’ third try but that was not before Wales had got themselves back in the game via another well-worked Rogers effort – Tomos Williams, Blair Murray and Max Llewellyn all playing a role in setting up the wing.

However, they were rather soft in defence and that was demonstrated by their loosehead prop, who allowed Williams to roll out of his tackle and cross the whitewash.

With Wales 10 points in arrears at the break, they needed another response at the start of the second period and the hosts got it when Rogers went over for his hat-trick.

Once again, they exploited the All Blacks’ weakness in the wider channels with the wing speeding down the left and avoiding the cover tackle to score.

Not given a hope before the match, the Principality Stadium was at fever pitch and that excitement perhaps even increased when the tourists had two tries disallowed in quick succession.

Clarke was denied by a knock-on earlier in the move before Will Jordan was deemed to have been held up, despite referee Hollie Davidson initially awarding the score.

The pressure was unrelenting, though, and they finally touched down when Ioane latched onto McKenzie’s cross-field kick to restore their 10-point buffer.

That dampened the Welsh enthusiasm somewhat and New Zealand hammered home their advantage. They were helped by a yellow card for Gareth Thomas after a series of team indiscretions and Reece effectively made sure of the win by finishing in the right-hand corner.

The replacement wing then completed his brace – after Taine Plumtree had been sin-binned for the hosts – and Clarke also scored another late on.

Rees-Zammit’s brilliant finish did give Wales fans some joy in the final 10 minutes, but they have plenty to work on looking ahead to the Six Nations.

The teams

Wales: 15 Blair Murray, 14 Louis Rees-Zammit, 13 Max Llewellyn, 12 Joe Hawkins, 11 Tom Rogers, 10 Dan Edwards, 9 Tomos Williams, 8 Taine Plumtree, 7 Harri Deaves, 6 Alex Mann, 5 Adam Beard, 4 Dafydd Jenkins, 3 Keiron Assiratti, 2 Dewi Lake (c), 1 Rhys Carre
Replacements: 16 Brodie Coghlan, 17 Gareth Thomas, 18 Archie Griffin, 19 Freddie Thomas, 20 Morgan Morse, 21 Kieran Hardy, 22 Jarrod Evans, 23 Nick Tompkins

New Zealand: 15 Ruben Love, 14 Will Jordan, 13 Rieko Ioane, 12 Anton Lienert-Brown, 11 Caleb Clarke, 10 Damian McKenzie, 9 Cortez Ratima, 8 Wallace Sititi, 7 Du’Plessis Kirifi, 6 Simon Parker, 5 Fabian Holland, 4 Scott Barrett (c), 3 Pasilio Tosi, 2 Samisoni Taukei’aho, 1 Tamaiti Williams
Replacements: 16 George Bell, 17 Fletcher Newell, 18 George Bower, 19 Josh Lord, 20 Christian Lio-Willie, 21 Finlay Christie, 22 Leicester Fainga’anuku, 23 Sevu Reece

Referee: Hollie Davidson (SRU)
Assistant referees: Andrea Piardi (FIR), Gianluca Gnecchi (FIR)
TMO: Ian Tempest (RFU)
FPRO: Matteo Liperini (FIR)

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