Right, well after pulling an all nighter to watch this game, and then enjoying the rest of my Sunday I've had plenty of time to reflect.
For me the big difference between the teams were the substitutions. I think this was epitomized by both teams halfbacks. When TJ Peranara came on he had a very strong game (considering his recent form), slotted in very well and kept the tempo high. When Mike Phillips came on to replace Rhys Webb (for what reason I have no clue as he was probably Wales best player on the night IMHO), then Wales tempo slowed right down, delivery and decision making became very labored and of course lead to Kieran Read's charge down which probably sealed the game.
Similarly one of the things Wales did best in that first half was their line speed on defense, really putting a lot of pressure on Barrett. One of the players who was behind this IMO was firstly Warburton, but secondly Lydiate and Hibbard. Both of those two players were replaced in the 60th minute after strong games in defense, to be replaced by Baldwin and Tipuric. Now between in the twenty minutes they were on they are credited with only two tackles between them (all to Baldwin..). Considering the amount of pressure they were causing on defense, and Wales not really looking like they were getting too much going in attack - I don't understand why Gatland made any of those changes.
The entire All Blacks bench had a solid game - barring perhaps the props which didn't make a whole lot of impact. Mealamu came on looking like he was 10 years younger, made a brilliaint first up hit on a retreating player and was constantly involved. Patrick Tuipolutu again made thunderous hits when he came on, particularly a great one on Faletau. I'm not a Liam Messam fan really, but I couldn't fault him at all during his time in the game, he did some nice hit ups from the kick off (it seems the ABs are using the blindsides a lot this way). Like I mention Peranara looked very composed. Slade offered solid kicking and the combination of Barrett at fullback and Slade at 10 was largely what I credit to such a blow out at the end. Barrett slotted brilliantly into first receiver and he is so elusive with a bit of time on his hands. I'd go as far to say that the option of using Barrett as a regular fullback is actually pretty damn appealing to me. Crotty came on with little time and didn't get much of a chance to do much, but he didn't make any errors.
The starting players for the All Blacks were generally good. Our starting front row pretty clearly had the better of the scrums (although I'm still not at all convinced with Faumuina's scrummaging). Owen Franks was a bit of a monster in the scrums, while I thought Wyatt Crockett was very handy for us in defense. Dane Coles needs to calm the ***** down a bit, but otherwise wasn't bad. Our lineout finally started to look much better (I think Kaino is a bit underrated as a lineout jumper). Our loose forwards were busy and made plenty of tackles, however I thought were still occasionally a bit passive at contesting (and some of the times McCaw did contests were pretty obviously never going to be anything other than a penalty).
For our backs, there is no doubt Barrett was put under a lot of pressure in the first half, largely due to the great Welsh line speed, while it looked like the Blacks were playing a bit flat to the line and pushing far too many passes in that first half. Sonny Bill Williams I thought was particularly guilty of losing the ball in contact by trying to push opportunities. In the first half the outside backs didn't get too much to work with and I felt ended up resorting to running into traffic a bit too much. Conrad Smith I thought had a very good game, doing a lot of subtle things really well. His defense was pretty heroic at times, containing a very big Welsh midfield. I'm not sure if his pass to Savea was intentional or a happy product of getting hit very hard, but not a bad effort at all.
For Wales - they had some real trouble in the set pieces, but there were some outstanding performances I thought. Hibbard in particular I felt had a very strong game. Rhys Webb was another who just brought a lot of speed and accuracy to the Welsh backline, there was quite a bit of anxiety about him prior to this test, but I think he totally vindicated his selection (even though I have a sneaky suspicion Toby Faletau's offlaod was forward
). Other than getting run over by Savea, Dan Biggar had a very good game I thought, and seemed detirmined to not miss a tackle on Savea again after that. His kicking was accurate and ambitious while I thought he run the back line quite nicely and put the ABs back three under a lot of pressure with his bombs. Some how Roberts got the man of the match, which was a bit surprising to me. He did what he does pretty well, he ran very hard at the midfield and took quite a bit of stopping (I think he got the better of SBW a few times), but I also think he stifled Wales attack somewhat. There was one opportunity where Wales had space to counter, he was near the right wing, men outside him, and he looks to diagonally run infield to hit the defenders..). I think Wales could have freed up a lot more space for their wingers if they were a little less determined to go through the middle.
