Wales 10 - All Blacks 33 : The RWC final that never was

The game that was denied us all. The RWC final that should have been. The best of the North vs the best of the South.

Hore hides in the ruck after 'dealing' to lazy running Bradley Davies. Not good.

I was looking forward to this game massively. Sure Wales have been poor in their previous defeats to Argentina and South Africa this NH Autumn but surely they would get up to prove critics and all of us kiwi knockers that they could play. Shane Williams may have retired, but they still have excitement in the backs.

It started ferociously. ABs hitting the rucks hard, bodies bouncing everywhere. Then Andrew Hore, channeling his inner 1970s thuggergy (porn star 'tache and all) with an awesome impression of infamous former-AB Billy Bush (look him up, grade A psychopath, a man so enamoured of violence he made Richard Loe look like a princess barbie doll) took out lumbering Welsh lock Bradley Davies with a roundhouse, from behind, forearm smash. It was something Hacksaw Jim Duggan would have been proud of. However, it's pretty much frowned upon these days and was mega wrong. It could've cost us the test and Hore will be rightly punished in the coming days, and we'll be down one hard bastard for the game against England.

Anyway, the game continued apace and within 10 minutes there were another two Welsh men on the way to hospital with Bradley. The turf too was starting to mirror the occasion, cutting up and looking decidedly like the Somme a la WWI.

While the old adage, 'You always score with the Hore' appears to have morphed into 'You're always floored by the Hore', it was still a game of 15 vs 15, no matter how much the Welsh twitter people whinged and Telegraph writers complained. The game was an uneven contest and there were holes everywhere for a rampaging back line led by mercurial deity-on-earth Conrad Smith.

Corey Jane was well shackled by newcomer Liam Williams (who had a great game), but on the other wing Savea and Dagg were beating Cuthbert with ease time after time. It was only a matter of time before the points flowed. The game's best try was started by Conrad and Dagg combining as the ball swept up the field from our 22 before Messam touched down. It was magic stuff. The game was over at half time and put to bed 10 minutes into the second half as we led 33-0, from a repeat of the RWC winning try by Woodcock bursting through the lineout.

We went to sleep for the last 20 minutes but it didn't matter. I did enjoy the Welsh 13 man lineout though. Worth watching again.



England next....