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Another week, another Wales loss. This latest one finished 52-26, and if you missed it, it seems like yet another in their long list of losses versus New Zealand, which now stretches back 34 games over seven decades.

However, it's also plausible, that, for the men who coached it competing, for the tens of thousands at the stadium, and the massive TV audience tuning in remotely, it may yet come to stand for something more significant than that. They didn't quite make, a corner, but they took a quick peek into the future and got a glimpse of what the future could resemble with Steve Tandy leading the side.

Repeatedly, the All Blacks pulled away by scoring a try, starting with just three minutes into the game, and each time the home side managed to haul their way back back into the match with a try one of their own almost straight away.

All three were scored by the wing from Scarlets Rogers, establishing him as the first Welshman to score a hat-trick against New Zealand. Yet the credit just as much to the squad, notably Williams, assisting a try using a clever precision kick, Louis Rees-Zammit, providing an assist with an excellent grab, and Joe Hawkins, who made the third with a fine cross-field pass.

At the start of the latter period, it was 24-21, with just a single kick from McKenzie dividing the sides. Two tries from New Zealand three tries were the result of set pieces, the first a straightforward score from Caleb Clarke, the other an even simpler by Williams from a forward push. The third came from an impressive effort by Ruben Love, who slipped through a gap in the defence using a dummy and a step, and sprinted 30 meters to score.

Key Details

• Wales Murray; Rees-Zammit, Llewellyn, Hawkins, Rogers (Tompkins 55); Edwards (Evans 68), Williams (Hardy 68); Carré (G Thomas 52), Lake (Coghlan 76), Assiratti (Griffin 52), Jenkins, Beard (F Thomas 70), Mann, Deaves (Morse 68), Plumtree
• Disciplinary issues Thomas 58, Plumtree 68
• Touchdowns multiple tries from the wings
• Kicks three successful kicks

• All Blacks Love (Reece 55); Jordan, Ioane, Lienert-Brown (Fainga’anuku 68), Clarke; McKenzie, Ratima (Christie 55); Williams (Bower 55), Taukei’aho (Bell 65), Tosi (Newell 55), Barrett, Holland (Lord 64), Parker, Kirifi (Lio-Willie 68), Sititi
• Tries a variety of try-scorers
• Extras perfect kicking record
• Three points from McKenzie

Match official the referee was Hollie Davidson

Crowd over 68,000

Around this time that New Zealand entered another level. They added three touchdowns in a short burst. Two were ruled out, for a forward pass, the second upon replay showed Rogers had just managed to prevent the score. Yet the next one, which wasn’t awarded as the official thought there was an infringement off a cross-field kick, was confirmed to Rieko Ioane upon video check.

After that, things started to fall apart. Initially, Thomas was sent a yellow card, and as he returned, the flanker also left.

New Zealand scored additional tries in the final quarter, including two from Sevu Reece. However, Wales managed to respond once more on their own, following excellent play by Blair Murray and the wing. The atmosphere intensified at that moment, despite the fact their team was trailing, they felt pride to have something to shout about, and a glimpse of early indications of improvement facing one of the world’s best teams.