All Blacks: Cardiff a taste of Cup pressure

Richie McCaw and his team played with an eye on the full 80 minutes. Photo / Getty Images

Welsh effort gives test the feel of rugby All Blacks will face next year.

In the context of what lies ahead next year, New Zealand's performance in Cardiff was possibly the most significant of 2014.

Whatever the level of optimism about the All Blacks' chances of becoming the first team to win back-to-back World Cups, there is reason for it to climb significantly on the back of the 34-16 victory.

The test in Cardiff looked awfully like World Cup knock-out rugby. There was Wales lifting way above where they have been so far this November: unexpected, almost unbelievably good efforts from the underdog are standard fare at World Cups. There was the pressure they applied through the speed and accuracy of their defence and lack of urgency shown in stoppages.

Wales were utterly cynical and possibly brilliant in the way they managed to find a supposedly injured player at every break in play.

And, in the first half at least, they kicked superbly. They swarmed all over the field, rushed and harried, made half breaks, stole a few turnovers and forced the All Blacks into mistakes and banged them out of their rhythm.

That's just the sort of rugby the All Blacks can expect to face on the same ground in next year's quarter-final.

"It was perfect for us because that's what we will get in the quarter-final whether we face either France or Ireland," said All Black coach Steve Hansen.

"It is going to be a massive atmosphere, it is going to be a really physical, hard game and we are going to have to work our way through it."

That's what impressed about the All Blacks - the way they pieced together their performance, so aware that the test is 80 minutes.

Wales strangely wanted to congratulate themselves for being a point ahead with 12 minutes remaining - as if that had any relevance.

What they and every other aspiring World Cup contender will have to come to terms with is that the All Blacks can shift a gear, even two, in the blink of an eye and blow open any game in the final 10 minutes.

On this occasion it wasn't their aerobic capacity that came through for them at the death. That's their normal trick in tight encounters.

But this time, it was their tactical variance towards more and better-executed kicking that broke the Welsh.

Watch: All Blacks: Retallick World Rugby Player of the Year

Colin Slade's introduction at first-five, with Beauden Barrett shifting to fullback, gave the All Blacks more bang for their kicking buck and they turned Wales and forced them to play inside their own territory.

Wales, with the fatigue of their defensive effort catching up with them, suddenly looked like they couldn't cope. They could only boot the ball down the field and that just added to the pressure they were under.

"We had talked about it at half time but [it looked as if] we didn't have enough kicking options," said Hansen on the change in approach. "We needed another player who could do that and with two guys who could control both sides of the park, it seemed to work for us.

"Every time we have done it it has worked for us."

Being able to problem solve on the field was not always a skill the All Blacks had. Nowhere was that exposed more famously than at the Millennium Stadium in 2007.

Now they do it as a matter of course and they do it in games where they are being needled, frustrated and pulled at the edges to see if the fabric unravels.

"We actually spoke about that this week," said All Black No 8 Kieran Read.

"That is a similar game to what we will get potentially next year. It is about us stepping up and absorbing pressure. The key lessons ... are to learn from what all of the teams have done to us."

Click here for comprehensive match statistics.