Wales Summer Tour: New Zealand 46-6 Wales

Wales return after summer tour to New Zealand

While the Wales National Football Team, led by Captain Gareth Bale, has fought their way to an upcoming UEFA Euro 2016 Quarter-Final match against Belgium on July 1 at Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Lille, France, the Wales Rugby Team was down-under fighting in their summer tour going face-to-face against the titan New Zealand All-Blacks and the Chiefs. Unfortunately for Wales, they lost all four games on their tour with the following results:

Wales Rugby Team 2016 Summer Tour Results
June 11 New Zealand 39-21 Wales (Auckland)
June 14 Chiefs 40-7 Wales (Hamilton)
June 18 New Zealand 36-22 Wales (Wellington)
June 25 New Zealand 46-6 Wales (Dunedin)

New Zealand next will begin intense training for their defense of the Rugby Championship against Australia, South Africa and Argentina. The Wales side will take a break before they begin the Autumn Internationals tournament in Cardiff after playing a total of 19 games including 18 Tests - the World Cup and Six Nations since August 2015. Reportedly Wales coach Warren Gatland hopes to return down under with his side along with the British and Irish Lions in 2017.

After the tour, Wales manager Warren Gatland praised New Zealand. "In fairness to the All Blacks I thought they were outstanding."I thought the pace of their back three caused us some problems and some of their collision dominance was pretty good as well."We'll take a lot of lessons from these three Tests and we need to apply that the next time we get back together," said Gatland. Of note was New Zealand’s George Moala's touchdown against Wales, his second in two All Blacks appearances as New Zealand extended their winning run over Wales to 29 games in 63 years with a dominating performance in Dunedin on June 25.

Wales delivered a fierce battle against New Zealand in all three Tests, but however the All Blacks were sharper defensively and fiercer in attack to earn a 3-0 win in the series. First-half tries by Ben Smith and George Moala preceded Beauden Barrett going over. Fly-half Barrett added a second in a 26-point tidal wave against Wales with Dane Coles and Israel Dagg also touching down. New Zealand’s biggest win against Wales was a 55-3 win in 2003 when Wales were led by World Cup winning coach Steve Hansen.

New Zealand were ruthless as they defeated Wales kicking game throughout the match in a repeat of the two previous Tests. At times both Wales and New Zealand lacked composure in possession as they attempted to break the other’s defense. Rival kickers Dan Biggar and Barrett scored the first points of the match. The Welshman opened the scoring, and added a second. Aaron Smith appeared to have the jitters in the opening try, as he never less delivered a superb scoring pass to Ben Smith. The All Blacks had to wait for the referee the video in order to decide whether the right wing had touched down before his knee trailed and crossed the touchline.

Center Moala was then denied by Liam Williams' desperate tackle but he nevertheless managed to finish off a sweeping counter-attack. Barrett's conversion gave the All Blacks a 12-point advantage at the break. Barrett's delivered New Zealand's next try as his amazing pass put hooker Coles clear and Wales no doubt suffered for their inaccuracy. As hard as they tried, Warren Gatland's Wales side were out of their league against New Zealand.

New Zealand v Wales
New Zealand (18) 46
Tries: B Smith, Moala, Barrett 2, Coles, Dagg Cons: Barrett 5 Pen: Barrett 2
Wales (6) 6
Pens: Biggar 2

New Zealand v Wales Squads

Israel Dagg; Ben Smith, George Moala, Ryan Crotty, Julian Savea; Beauden Barrett, Aaron Smith; Joe Moody, Dane Coles, Charlie Faumuina, Brodie Retallick, Sam Whitelock, Elliot Dixon, Sam Cane, Kieran Read (capt). Replacements: Codie Taylor (for Coles), Wyatt Crockett (for Moody), Ofa Tu'ungafasi (for Faumuina), Luke Romano (for Retallick), Liam Squire (for Dixon), Tawera Kerr-Barlow (for A Smith), Lima Sopoaga (for Crotty), Waisake Naholo (for Moala).

Rhys Patchell, Liam Williams, Jonathan Davies, Jamie Roberts, Hallam Amos, Dan Biggar, Rhys Webb, Rob Evans, Ken Owens, Tomas Francis, Luke Charteris, Alun Wyn Jones, Ross Moriarty, Sam Warburton (capt), Taulupe Faletau. Replacements: Scott Baldwin (for Owens), Aaron Jarvis (for Evans), Samson Lee (for Francis), Jake Ball (for Charteris), Ellis Jenkins (for Warburton), Gareth Davies (for Webb), Rhys Priestland (for Biggar), Scott Williams (Roberts).

Wales fans do not have much longer to wait for the start of the Autumn Internationals taking place at Millenium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales in the United Kingdom. Wales opening Autumn Internationals match is against giants Australia on November 5. Then on November 12, Wales face Argentina. On November 19, Japan will travel to Cardiff to go head-to-head with Wales on November 19th before South Africa and Wales battle on November 26! Wales supporters will want to support their team at every match – and great seats and tickets are still available for all of the fixtures.

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Wales Autumn International Tickets
Wales v Australia Tickets 5 Nov 2016 Millenium Stadium Cardiff, UK
Wales v Argentina Tickets 12 Nov 2016 Millenium Stadium Cardiff, UK
Wales v Japan Tickets 19 Nov 2016 Millenium Stadium Cardiff, UK
Wales v South Africa Tickets 26 Nov 2016 Millenium Stadium Cardiff, UK

Wales Six Nations Tickets
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