mens
nations-championship
Wales boss Steve Tandy wants his team to focus on themselves rather than the aura around them New Zealand in front of them Nations Championship clash on Saturday.
The All black people have won the last 34 meetings between the two nations and head to the Principality Stadium on the back of a convincing 43-21 victory over Scotland last saturday.
Tandy led Wales to an unconvincing 28-21 victory Japan on the same day, and the head coach wants his players to concentrate on their own performances and not get caught up in the fight against the three-time world champions.
Tandy told a press conference: “You look at the World Cups and everything, the former players they’ve had, there’s always that aura around the All Blacks.
“But I think our guys were trying to look more in the mirror what we can do. We remember the last time we played them, I think the stadium, everything before that, there’s the Haka which is an amazing experience for the fans.”
“For us, it has to be about ourselves. I think you can be too attracted to that.”
“I thought a lot about last year’s game until about 60 minutes into the game, we played our game. We attacked the way we wanted to, so it won’t be any different on Saturday.”
Tandy made four changes for the match, including a start for Taine Basham at number eight in his first Wales appearance since the 2024 Six Nations.
Aaron Wainwright was lined up for last Saturday’s game but is unavailable with a minor calf injury.
James Botham starts at blindside flank, while Adam Beard comes in at second row and Gabriel Hamer-Webb will start on the wing.
The All Blacks have won all of their Nations Championship games so far and Tandy believes they have “stepped it up” since the last meeting in 2025.
“It builds our game. The All Blacks are an incredible team, they’ve got an incredible team, they’ve been together for a long time,” he said.
“They’ve been trained great with Dave (Rennie) and culturally everything about them. I think they’ve gone up a level since we played them last time.”
“For us it’s a matter of getting better and trying to show our game. I thought we showed good intent at the weekend, scored some really good tries and the defense has improved especially around that middle third.”
