Beauden Barrett fills his boots as New Zealand All Blacks sweep Wales

Fly-half Beauden Barrett scored 26 points, including two second-half tries, with Ben Smith, George Moala, Dane Coles and Israel Dagg also touching down in the rout.

“It’s pretty disappointing. We thought there were a lot of positives out of the first two Tests… but in fairness to the All Blacks I thought they were absolutely outstanding”.

Moala, who was not in the original squad and called up as a replacement for Charlie Ngatai, scored a try in the first half before he picked up the injury while making a tackle early in the second and was substituted in the 49th minute. Cons Barrett (5). Pens Barrett (2).

World No. 6 Wales end a gruelling tour with four losses, including an embarrassing midweek thumping from the Chiefs.

With the series already wrapped up with convincing wins in the first two Tests, New Zealand have made 12 changes to the match-day 23 with an eye to grooming combinations ahead of the Rugby Championship which starts in August.

“We have got better with each game, we have blooded a lot of new people, we have a new leadership group and a new skipper [Kieran Read] – all of whom have done really well”. They have lost their last 28 matches against the world champions, with their last triumph registered in 1953. The team came together as a squad on July 15 previous year to prepare for the Rugby World Cup and have stayed together through that tournament, the Six Nations and the current tour.

It finished as the fifth-largest winning margin for the All Blacks against Wales, the biggest a 55-3 hiding in 2003 when the tourists were coached by Steve Hansen.

The Test ticked several boxes for the All Blacks, who fielded three debut forwards in Elliot Dixon, Liam Squire and Ofa Tu’ungafasi, while several other fringe players had game time.

“We fully understand… that he is not far away from being where we need him to be”. Wales tried to run out from their own line and even though they managed to work an overlap, the final pass was forward.

“But you’re always wanting more, aren’t you? We started pretty well in Dunedin, but New Zealand were superb in attack and we missed too many tackles”, said Gatland. Warburton has competed well for the loose ball throughout the series and knows that a dominant showing in that facet of play could play a big part in helping his side secure an unlikely victory.

“Basic mistakes like that you just can’t do over here and we were definitely second best”. For the protection of AP and its licensors, content may not be copied, altered or redistributed in any form. Doing so may result in civil and/or criminal penalties.