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Wales V New Zealand Classics

Wales V New Zealand Classics

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29/11/1997 WALES 7 NEW ZEALAND 42

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At Wembley Stadium, London.

Wales were playing a home match for the first time at Wembley Stadium in London, as the National Ground in Cardiff was being knocked down to make way for the Millennium Stadium to be built.
A crowd of 76,000 was present to see Wales score a good try by Cardiff wing Nigel Walker, but New Zealand ran in five tries – three of them coming from full back Christian Cullen, taking his tally to 21 in 21 tests.
This was the 13th successive win for New Zealand over Wales and the final act of the match was a memorable drop goal by New Zealand No.8 Zinzan Brooke, in the penultimate test of the 58 he appeared in.
Wales were skippered for the last time by flanker Gwyn Jones, who was to be seriously injured in a club match for Cardiff against Swansea soon afterwards.
Neil Jenkins converted Walker’s try with Taine Randell and skipper Justin Marshall crossing for further All Black tries and Andrew Mehrtens placed four conversions and two penalty goals.
Skipper Sean Fitzpatrick was considered not fit enough to start, but did appear for the tourists after 65 minutes to make his 92nd and final appearance.
Walker’s fine form and good try was rewarded by being dropped by coach Kevin Bowring!

Wales: K Morgan; G Thomas, A Bateman (rep: A Thomas), S Gibbs (rep: L Davies), N Walker; N Jenkins, R Howley; C Loader (rep: S John), Barry Williams (rep: J Humphreys), D Young, Gareth Llewellyn, M Voyle, R Appleyard, N Thomas (rep: S Williams), Gwyn Jones (capt).
Try: Walker. Con: Jenkins.
New Zealand: C Cullen; J Wilson, F Bunce, W Little, J Lomu; A Mehrtens, J Marshall (capt);
C Dowd, N Hewitt (rep: S Fitzpatrick), O Brown (rep: M Allen), I Jones, R Brooke, T Randell (rep: A Blowers), Z Brooke, J Kronfeld.
Tries: Cullen 3, Randell, Marshall. Cons: Mehrtens 4. Pens: Mehrtens 2. DG: Z Brooke.
Referee: W Erickson (Australia).

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