Wales 10 New Zealand 45: Collins show upstages WRU's song and dance

There were so many harsh lessons being taken in by the Wales side yesterday that their Vale of Glamorgan training camp seemed less like a plush country hotel than the set of Bad Lads Army. Nobody was excluded; officials, coaches, players, fitness trainers, judo instructors...

If anything, the first of the aforementioned were most in need of the sergeant major's rollicking, after their efforts to disrupt the All Blacks' pre-match protocol blew up in their faces. Alas, this game will not be remembered so much for Sitiveni Sivivatu's hat-trick or Jerry Collins' campaign of terror, or simply as the 80 minutes in which the All Blacks delivered proof that they are, indeed, world champions in waiting. No, this will forever be the day New Zealand performed the haka in the dressing room.

Why? Because the Welsh Rugby Union insisted that their anthem came after the haka and not, as the norm, before, something that Graham Henry and his All Blacks found disrespectful. Cue a stalemate that took even the Welsh team by surprise. A petty irrelevance to the game some said, although not Collins. Not only did the brilliant blindside think that the Wales players had been distracted, but that the "private" haka the All Blacks enacted for their own benefit had the right effect. "Did it fire us up?" said Collins with a sinister grin. "Take a look at the scoreboard, mate."

And therein lay the reality. Quite rightly, Gareth Jenkins refused to become embroiled in "Hakagate" yesterday - he has quite enough on his plate. The coach wore a look of utter dejection. "In the summer we identified two things that were totally different in the southern hemisphere - the intensity of the contact area and the tactical kicking game," he said. "That is where we leaked the tries and effectively lost the match after slipping 16 points down in 16 minutes. So no, it didn't come as a complete shock to me."

Jenkins is preparing to issue the four Welsh regions with a challenge to concentrate on these two areas "as the building blocks to make us competitive". One way in which Jenkins believes Wales can catch up is by copying the All Blacks' use of judo techniques on the floor. "The New Zealand franchises have employed judo coaches for the last two years and we've just started," he said. "We've had Neil Adams [the Olympic silver medallist] in and I must say, it's been enlightening. It's definitely something I will be encouraging the regions to do."

Richie McCaw and Andrew Hore were both shown yellow cards on Saturday, though if Dave Pearson had followed the law to its letter the visitors could have had two or three in the sin-bin at any one time. "They do get away with a lot and even when they are penalised they seem happy to accept that," said the open-side flanker, Martyn Williams. "That's what we have to do and we have to do it in numbers like they do. If one guy's doing it in isolation then it's easy to pick him out but if three or four are up to it you get a lot more with it."

So apparently the answer is for not just one guy to cheat, but the lot of them. Whatever, New Zealand once again proved they are totally in step - on and off the dancefloor.

Wales: Try M Williams; Conversion Hook; Penalty S Jones; New Zealand: Tries McAlister, Sivivatu 3, Penalty; Conversions Carter 2, Evans 2; Penalties Carter 4.

Wales: K Morgan (Dragons); M Jones (Scarlets), T Shanklin (Blues), S Parker (Ospreys), S Williams (Ospreys); S Jones (capt), D Peel (both Scarlets); D Jones (Ospreys), R Thomas (Blues), A Jones (Ospreys), I Gough (Dragons), I Evans (Ospreys), J Thomas (Ospreys), R Jones (Ospreys), M Williams (Blues). Replacements: J Hook (Ospreys) for Shanklin, 47; G Jenkins (Blues) for D Jones, 47; A Popham (Scarlets) for R Jones, 47; A W Jones (Ospreys) for Evans, 56; M Phillips (Blues) for Peel, 62; G Henson (Ospreys) for Parker, 72; M Rees (Scarlets) for R Thomas, 72.

New Zealand: M Muliaina (Chiefs); R Gear (Crusaders), C Smith (Hurricanes), L McAlister (Blues), S Sivivatu (Chiefs); D Carter (Crusaders), B Kelleher (Chiefs); N Tialata (Hurricanes), A Oliver, C Hayman (both Highlanders), K Robinson (Chiefs), A Williams (Blues), J Collins (Hurricanes), R McCaw (Crusaders, capt), R So'oialo (Hurricanes). Replacements: T Woodcock (Blues) for Tialata, 35; A Hore (Hurricanes) for Oliver, 49; P Weepu (Hurricanes) for Kelleher, 49; J Ryan (Highlanders) for Williams, 62; N Evans (Highlanders) for Carter, 62; R Thorne (Crusaders) for So'oialo, 62; M Nonu (Hurricanes) for Sivivatu, 76.

Referee: D Pearson (England).