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All Black finish season on a high

Rieko Ioane of New Zealand breaks through to score his sides fifth try

The All Blacks ended their long season with a 33-18 victory in Cardiff over Wales, sealed by three tries in the second half.

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However, they only had a 12-11 lead at halftime after the Welsh enjoyed an 80 per cent possession advantage in the first 40 minutes.

Wales opened the scoring with a Leigh Halfpenny penalty, and successfully managed to deny the All Blacks any ball till the 15 minute mark. The first break by Aaron Smith was telling though, as he ran 30 metres upfield to link with Waisake Naholo for the opening try.

Naholo dotted down again in the 38th minute, but Wales hit back with a lovely try to Scott Williams just on the stroke of halftime.

Halfpenny couldn’t convert but Wales would’ve headed to the sheds full of confidence. That was dashed by Anton Lienart-Brown in the 57th minute, who latched on to a Rieko Ioane break. Ioane then picked off Dan Biggar to make the score comfortable.

Replacement halfback Gareth Davies gave the Welsh some hope with a try soon after, but Ioane then burst through the defensive line off a scrum to seal victory for the All Blacks.

The All Blacks now head home for the summer, with a record of 13 wins, two losses and a draw for the year.

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Meanwhile Wales should be buoyed by their showing in the first half going into the 6 Nations.

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SK 1 hour ago
The times are changing, and some Six Nations teams may be left behind

If you are building the same amount of rucks but kicking more is that a bad thing? Kicks are more constestable than ever, fans want to see a contest, is that a bad thing? kicks create broken field situations where counter attacks from be launched from or from which turnover ball can be exploited, attacks are more direct and swift rather than multiphase in nature, is that a bad thing? What is clear now is that a hybrid approach is needed to win matches. You can still build phases but you need to play in the right areas so you have to kick well. You also have to be prepared to play from turnover ball and transition quickly from the kick contest to attack or set your defence quickly if the aerial contest is lost. Rugby seems healthy to me. The rules at ruck time means the team in possession is favoured and its more possible than ever to play a multiphase game. At the same time kicking, set piece, kick chase and receipt seems to be more important than ever. Teams can win in so many ways with so many strategies. If anything rugby resembles footballs 4-4-2 era. Now football is all about 1 striker formations with gegenpress and transition play vs possession heavy teams, fewer shots, less direct play and crossing. Its boring and it plods along with moves starting from deep, passing goalkeepers and centre backs and less wing play. If we keep tinkering with the laws rugby will become a game with more defined styles and less variety, less ways to win effectively and less varied body types and skill sets.

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