Pain in the valleys - Wales' All Blacks drought hits 70 years

It is one of the recurring questions of the last seven decades for Welsh rugby, will Wales beat New Zealand again?

This week marks the 70th anniversary of Wales' last victory against the mighty All Blacks. The date of 19 December, 1953 represents a significant day in Welsh history as Bleddyn Williams led his side to a 13-8 victory in Cardiff.

It was coming towards the end of the coronation year of Queen Elizabeth II and Winston Churchill was prime minister - with 15 more political leaders taking up residence in 10 Downing Street since then.

A National Assembly has also since been created in Wales - now the Senedd, or Welsh Parliament - with four first ministers, soon to be five.

Not one political leader in Cardiff Bay has seen the Wales senior side defeat the All Blacks while they were in office.

Legends such as Sir Gareth Edwards, Gerald Davies, JPR Williams, Barry John, Alun Wyn Jones and Shane Williams have never tasted success for Wales against the All Blacks, although there has been success for Welsh players with the British and Irish Lions and the odd rare triumph for Wales Under-20s.

Historic day

Prop Courtenay Meredith, now 97, is the only Wales survivor, while Bill McCaw, 96, is the one remaining All Black from that day in Cardiff.

The occasion occurred when rugby's try yielded three points rather than the five under current rules.

Cardiff had beaten New Zealand four weeks before, with five of those backs among them captain Williams included for Wales.

Respected commentator Huw Llywelyn Davies attended the game as an eight-year-old with his father, who was writing for the weekly Welsh language newspaper Baner ac Amserau Cymru.

"One thing I remember about the crowd was it was colourless, when we're there now everybody dressed up with daffodils on their heads and everything," he told S4C's Newyddion programme.

"There were hardly any girls or women there and all the men seemed to be there in dark coats and a flat cap on their heads, that seemed to be the uniform of the day."

After a Sid Judd try, converted by Gwyn Rowlands, Wales fell behind to a try by Bill Clark and a conversion and penalty from Ron Jarden.

Centre Gareth Griffiths dislocated his shoulder but returned to the action before Rowlands levelled with a penalty.

Clem Thomas's cross-kick was gathered by Olympic sprinter Ken Jones for the crucial try, which Rowlands converted.

"I have spoken many times to Clem about the kick, he always said it was completely planned," said Davies.

"It was absolutely what he wanted to do and it landed in the perfect place for Ken Jones. Everybody else said he didn't know what he was doing because kicking wasn't the forte of Clem's game."

All Blacks hurt

Former New Zealand captain Sean Fitzpatrick was a fearsome All Blacks hooker in the 1980s and 1990s and was part of the World Cup-winning squad of 1987. He played 92 Tests which included six wins against Wales.

Now a Scarlets board member, Fitzpatrick has ties to that day seven decades ago because his father Brian was in the New Zealand side making his international debut.

Observers say he was unlucky not to be awarded a try against Wales after he was adjudged to have been tackled just short of the line.

Had the try been allowed it may well have meant an All Black win rather than a narrow loss and history could have been different.

"He had had a huge amount of respect for the Welsh and had some great friends," said Fitzpatrick.

"At that time the Welsh were as good as anyone. It wasn't the first time that they lost to the Welsh so maybe it was not unexpected.

"That 1953 was a long tour and they didn't have a great success. He never went back to Wales so maybe that says something about it. They say you remember your losses more than your wins."

New Zealand dominance

Wales defeated New Zealand in three out of the first four matches in the fixture, with victories in 1905, 1935 and 1953 before the start of the 33-match losing sequence.

In those games in the last 70 years it has been one-sided, with the All Blacks scoring 1,180 points while conceding 401.

Wales have only come close on a couple of occasions with one-point defeats in 2004 and 1978 when New Zealand lock Andy Haden infamously dived out of a lineout to gain a match-winning penalty.

Wales have turned to four New Zealand coaches in Sir Graham Henry, Steve Hansen, Warren Gatland and Wayne Pivac to help break the hoodoo, but none of the quartet could inspire a Test victory over the land of their birth.

Wales have defeated every other major playing nation since, while the likes of Ireland, England, Argentina, France and South Africa have managed to defeat the All Blacks at various times.

There is nothing to suggest this losing streak will end anytime soon, with the Welsh game in major transition and New Zealand only losing the 2023 World Cup final by one point against South Africa.

With the current state of the Welsh game, does Fitzpatrick think Wales can ever break this hoodoo?

"You need to believe you can beat them to start with," said Fitzpatrick.

"Ireland have done it recently and followed it up with more wins, so they now believe.

"Of course there's always a chance but at the moment it would be difficult to predict that because of the state of where both nations are at. Being involved in Wales, the structure of the game needs a real looking at.

"Everybody is beatable now so you never know, so there is no reason why Wales can't achieve that.

"Warren [Gatland] has got a big challenge... to build a team that's going to be competitive at the next World Cup.

"He's got four years to do that so he can be focused on developing that team with a new group of players and generation change, with a lot of the players moving on. There is the talent in Wales, if it's nurtured in the right way."

Whether talent enough will help Wales break the losing cycle against New Zealand is open to debate.

How many more anniversaries will have to be marked of this one-sided international match-up remains to be seen.

- This story was first published by [BBC https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/67681514]