THERE seemed to be so much good from the Wales camp nine days ago, when, despite losing to Australia, they performed admirably against the world champions.

But that good did not just turn bad last Saturday, it was positively ugly!

There was an element of luck for the beleaguered Welsh as well - they were lucky they didn't lose by an even greater margin as the powerful All Blacks should have made it a round dozen of tries in Hamilton 48 hours ago.

Coach Steve Hansen tried to put a positive slant on matters afterwards, saying that Wales have to take on the best if they want to be the best.

However, the gulf between New Zealand and Wales is enormous. Where the Welsh had threatened to boycott the entire tour over payments as they left for their plane out of Heathrow, All Black coach John Mitchell simply asked his side, containing a number of youngsters, to pull on the jersey and give it everything.

And they did, humbling Wales by a record score.

Wales were actually in front for a bare few moments when Llanelli outside-half Stephen Jones booted a penalty.

But for the remaining 70 minutes of the game, Hansen's team were simply out-classed and out-gunned, deprived of possession and out of their depth.

Last autumn, Wales nearly pulled off a famous victory over the New Zealanders at the Millennium Stadium, but that was against a side reckoned to be the All Blacks seconds.

On Saturday, they got a taste of the Kiwi's first team and, worryingly, they have to face them again in the group stages of this year's World Cup.

There were, really, only a few positives that Hansen could take out of the game. Lock Robert Sidoli is proving himself a true class act in an otherwise mediocre outfit, while tight-head prop Gethin Jenkins was a strong man in the front row as he battled with the powerful Carl Hoeft.

But the wind was truly taken out of Wales' sails when flanker Colin Charvis went off after 23 minutes, when the outstanding Kiwi number eight Jerry Collins, a bulldozer of a man, crashed into him.

It was all downhill from then on. Flying wing Doug Howlett got the first of the All Blacks' touchdowns after 20 minutes, and outside-half Carlos Spencer went over just before half-time.

In a different vein from Wales, the All Blacks are men who know that there are people behind them who will take their World Cup places if they do not perform to the highest of standards. Sadly, that cannot be said of the Welsh.

Another impressive youngster, centre Daniel Carter, found a gap past Blaenavon-born former Pontypool midfield man Mark Taylor for the third try, and soon the floodgates opened.

Tight-head Kees Meeuws and his partner, hooker Keven Mealamu, crossed just before the hour and, later, Hoeft nearly completed a famous hat trick of touchdowns for the big men in the front-row union, but narrowly missed out on the verdict of the video ref.

That is how it was throughout the match. The ref in the stand had a busy time re-running possible touchdowns that, only via last- ditch defence from Wales, kept the Kiwis out.

That last word had to go to the splendidly named wing Joe Rockocoko, who blasted over the line twice inside the last ten minutes.

Carter added six conversions and a penalty to his try, and it all left Wales praying for the final hooter that signalled their worst performance against the All Blacks.

It will be a long journey home on the plane from down under for Wales now, and already there are calls for Hansen's head.

He wants to stay on until after the World Cup but, with England among the other warm-up acts for Wales this summer before they get back on the plane for another meeting with the All Blacks, further humiliations cannot, surely, be tolerated by the fans.

Scorers: New Zealand : Tries - D Howlett, C Spencer, D Carter, K Meeuws, K Mealamu, J Rockocoko (2). Pen - D Carter. Cons - D Carter (6) Wales: Pen - S Jones.