All Blacks coach Dave Rennie promises tough review after shock Wales loss

Detailed summary

The All Blacks will look at all aspects of their preparation and performance after their historic 35-28 defeat to Wales in Cardiff.

The All Blacks will look at all aspects of their preparation and performance after their historic 35-28 defeat to Wales in Cardiff.

Head coach Dave Rennie admitted to being "hurt" by the setback, stating, "We expect a lot more of ourselves".

Wales outscored the All Blacks five converted tries to four on Sunday morning NZT, but their defensive intensity in the final 25 minutes was the most notable aspect of the nation's first win against New Zealand since 1953.

The All Blacks were missing several key players, with the selectors opted to make eight changes to the starting line-up, following their excellent win over Scotland last week. They were held up over the tryline three times and, despite a wealth of possession and territory in the final quarter, they could not break what skipper Beauden Barrett described as a defensive "brick wall".

It was easily New Zealand's worst test performance since their defeat to England at Twickenham under former coach Scott Robertson 12 months ago.

"We'll look at everything, because when you lose, it's not just on the players," Rennie said afterwards. "It's everything around how did we prepare the team this week, selections and our decision-making around substitutions coming on."

The players' own decision-making during the 80 minutes will also come into focus, because there was a huge step backwards in this area, after keeping Scotland scoreless in the second half in Edinburgh seven days earlier.

Their commitment to an offloading game at inappropriate times hurt them in the first half, and after the break, their determination to charge straight at a set Welsh defence time and again was a big failure in terms of strategy, if not common sense.

"I think we turned the ball over nine times in the first half and four of them were offloads," Rennie said. "It's a point of difference for us, but it's about the quality of decision - sighting the target and using the appropriate pass.

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