Wales have provided the best rugby entertainment this year. They arrived in Hamilton with a bevy of rolly-polly forwards and backs who flitted about like leaves in a windstorm and played with that skewed concentration.
This was the chance for those dirt-trackers to push for a second test callup up this weekend at the CakeTin, instead most of them, stamped their cards as unqualified for international rugby.
Wales have had a few of those types. They have steadied in recent times and in successive World Cup campaigns and we were told they were on the up. Maybe the 60-minute test side is but not this midweek lot.
Their 40-7 defeat, a six tries to one thumping was massive entertainment for most of the 17,756 crowd but a huge dent in any Welsh approval ratings. Their defence was porous, their attitude shaky, their decisions poor.
They had enough chances to lead at halftime but their selfish ineptitude meant they were 0-21 adrift and heading for an inglorious defeat.
