As brilliant to cruise in
themselves by kicking so poorly. They made Israel Dagg look like a worldbeater once again, which he undoubtedly is, and his quick feet and sharp turn of pace, in conjunction with the brilliant Ben Smith on the right wing, made Wales suffer all night long
Ben Smith dived over tight to the corner after some brilliant approach work by Dagg and Barrett, and the TMO ruled in favour of his spectacular finish in the 24th minute after Hallam Amos failed by a fraction to get him into touch.
Barrett missed with the conversion but kept the scoreboard going with a penalty as the All Blacks put their foot on the gas. Moala was just held up on the line, and forced to lose the ball, by a desperate tackle from Liam Williams, but the centre had his moment of glory just before the break when he picked up from a metre out to dive over for a try which Barrett improved.
The All Blacks may have ended the half on the defensive, but it took them only a few minutes to get back onto the attack at the start of the second.Wales tried to run out from their own line and even though they managed to work an overlap, the final pass was forward.
From the scrum five metres out, Barrett took the ball, ran into Biggar and Rhys Webb and somehow emerged on the other side of them and over the line.
His personal assault on the Welsh team in the series continued ten minutes later when he made a fool of three defenders after moving to full-back and bagged his second try.
He converted both of his own scores and added the extras to try No 5 from hooker Dane Coles and then the coup de grace from Dagg after the hooter had sounded.
That took Barrett’s match tally to 26 points and his total in four games against Wales to 52, including five tries.
That Dagg score, racing 80 metres up the right touchline after Wales had been turned over 10 metres from the home line, was a cruel end to the longest of seasons.
It also epitomised the gap between the two teams. REFEREE: Jerome Garces (Fr) Star man Beauden Barrett – New Zealand