Wales expose All Blacks defence

Wales 24 New Zealand 28

Wales produced a tenacious first half and exposed some shoddy All Blacks defence as they went into half-time just four points behind in their World Cup pool match in Sydney at 28-24.

Rocked by an early 90-second try to All Blacks winger Joe Rokocko and the loss of full-back Garan Evans to injury after only four minutes, Wales rallied to strike back with a try by Mark Taylor.

Rokocoko scored a second, Leon MacDonald and Ali Williams also crossed, but Wales finished the half strongly with tries for Sonny Parker and Colin Charvis.

Gareth Thomas’ presence was certainly providing some stability at full-back, his long clearance after 22 minutes eluding Rokocoko and bouncing into touch.

In the 24th minute another cheeky chip over the ruck by Jones nearly brought reward but this time the All Blacks recovered well and countered with a clearing kick which Doug Howlett would have scored from, but his kick through bounced sideways and Wales recovered to clear.

Just before the half-hour mark New Zealand scored their fourth try to secure a bonus point, Ali Williams outjumping Shane Williams to pull down a cross-field bomb from Carlos Spencer.

Wales grabbed a brilliant second try of their own when Williams atoned for being outjumped by stepping neatly through the defence then beating Mils Muliaina and Richie McCaw before passing for Shanklin.

The left winger then passed for Parker to go in and score, with Jones converting, but Parker then left the field with what looked like an arm injury.

Another super break by Williams left the suspect New Zealand defence grasping with two minutes to go in the half, and only ended when Robert Sidoli was hauled down by the desperate cover.

Charvis then drilled home that advantage with Wales’ third try, diving over a ruck near the line and dotting down to make it 22-28, with Jones’ conversion making it just a four-point deficit.