Rugby Union: Black avengers leave Scarlet faces

On the eve of the match Llanelli hosted a black tie dinner to celebrate the 25th anniversary of that famous 9-3 victory over New Zealand. The colour was appropriate. The mourning came after the night before.

Having honoured the Scarlets with the only club fixture of their short but intense nine-match tour of Great Britain and Ireland, the All Blacks last night obliterated the memory of the events of 1972 with a pulverising victory, scoring 13 tries to nil.

For hours before the kick-off, the scoreboard at Stradey Park carried the legend: Llanelli 9, Seland Newydd 3. Talk about a Scarlet rag to a black bull. It took the All Blacks all of five minutes to transform the scoreboard, the electrifying Christian Cullen slipping through Hywel Jenkins' tackle for the first try.

The full-back went on to score three more as the Scarlets were swept away beneath the All Blacks tide. On previous visits to Stradey, New Zealand's highest score had been 22 points.

Whenever the All Blacks visit West Wales it rains and yesterday was no exception but the conditions made no difference to the running, handling and support play of New Zealand. The floodgates opened and by half-time, when they led 31-3, they had scored five tries, four of them in a 15-minute spell of All Black magic. Jeff Wilson, named New Zealand player of the year,scored two of them and laid on another for Josh Kronfeld.

Llanelli were game but then so are pheasants on the Glorious Twelfth. They were starved of possession and the only respite came from a fine kick and catch by the full-back, Darrill Williams. It resulted in a penalty for Craig Warlow and for a few blissful minutes Llanelli were within two points of New Zealand.

When the All Blacks performed their traditional Haka, the Llanelli players, lined up in front of them, broke into applause. It was about the closest they got to their opponents all evening.

At times the All Blacks looked like the Harlem Globetrotters. It could have been described as men against boys except for the fact that a lot of these All Blacks are boys. The 21-year-old Cullen has scored 18 tries in 18 Test matches, but this was no Test. Nor was it a match.

Far from relaxing in the second half, the All Blacks raised the pace. Revelling in a constant flow of possession they piled on the agony. The cruellest cut of all for the Scarlets came when Warlow breached the defence with a startling break but when the move died near the All Black line, Cullen picked up the ball, chipped ahead and caught it at full pace to run the length of the field without a hand being laid on him.

No final indignity was needed but it was provided nonetheless by the balding figure of Norm Hewitt. The hooker, who would not have played but for an injury to Sean Fitzpatrick, helped himself to two tries.

The All Blacks might have gone into three figures but for the indifferent goal kicking of the stand-off, Andrew Mehrtens. Eight of their tries went unconverted. Touring teams are generally at their most vulnerable at the start of a tour but try telling that to Llanelli.

There was, of course, nothing surprising about what happened at Stradey Park this time. Twenty-five years on, the stampede towards professionalism had all but flattened Llanelli. Impoverished to the point of bankruptcy, they lost six of their international players when contracts began to fly around like confetti.

Gareth Jenkins, the Llanelli coach and one of the heroes of '72, had been under no illusions. "You can't ask for anything better than the chance to play against the best," he had said. What about a weekend off?

The most chilling warning, however, came from John Hart, the New Zealand coach, who announced on the party's arrival that this could be the most talented, the most complete set of All Blacks in history. Jenkins did not think Hart was exaggerating. "These are a class apart. We are not a bad side but they produce such organisation and continuity that we couldn't compete. When the boys walked into the dressing room afterwards they were shaking their heads. The first I did was laugh. It lightened the moment."

Llanelli: D Williams; W Proctor, N Boobyer, S Jones, W Leech; C Warlow, R Moon (A Thomas, 60); R Jones (H Williams-Jones, 73), R McBryde (captain), S Gale, S Ford, M Voyle, C Wyatt, H Jenkins (P Morris, 40), I Jones (A Gibbs, 70).

New Zealand: C Cullen; J Wilson (J Stanley, 57), F Bunce, A Ieremia, G Osborne; A Mehrtens (J Preston, 71), J Marshall (captain); C Dowd, N Hewitt, O Brown, I Jones, R Brooke, A Blowers, T Randell, J Kronfeld (Z Brooke, 55).

Referee: B Campsall (RFU).