Ex-All Blacks star Frank Bunce believes that this current Wales team would have no chance against whichever side Dave Rennie selected.

New Zealand have made mass alterations to their line-up for the clash at the Principality Stadium with eight players coming into the XV.

There are also six changes among the replacements as the head coach looks to experiment against the weakest country they are likely to face in the northern leg of the Nations Championship.

Wales’ struggles

The Welsh have been on the decline over the past few years and have particularly struggled since the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

Steve Tandy, who took over from Warren Gatland in 2025, appeared to oversee some improvement during the Six Nations and July Tests, but they struggled in their November opener against Japan.

“It’s been more than a couple of years where they’ve been poor,” Bunce told Sport Nation. “They lost everything they played for in quite a few matches, it wasn’t good, and the Wales faithful are like us where rugby is their number one sport.”

“They have been a foe of ours for years and years and years, and there’s certainly a great history.

“They have been showing signs of a recovery. I haven’t watched them too much and I couldn’t name any of their players to be honest, but I see some of their results and they are on the up a little bit, the tide is turning back in their favour somewhat.

“But I think the All Blacks will beat them and beat them well whichever team we put out there, but you never really know until you’re out there in the middle of things as to how it’s going to go.

“You’ve still got to play an international team due respect.”

Should the All Blacks comfortably defeat Wales as expected, that will keep them in contention for the title in the inaugural Nations Championship.

However, Bunce believes that the focus should very much be on developing the squad for the Rugby World Cup rather than necessarily winning this competition.

‘You can lose and still be convincing’

“I’m not worried. It’s nice to have if we win it but, for me at this point and leading into the World Cup, I want to see us play good rugby,” he said.

“I want to see improvement in the areas that we need to improve on. I want to see confidence.

“I don’t want to go back to the Razor era all the time but, if I missed a game like I did when I think we played Ireland in Chicago, I said to a mate of mine: ‘Did we win?’ He would go, ‘yeah, we won’, but I said: ‘Yeah, but how did we go?’ His response would be, ‘not that well’, and there was a lot of that which went on.

“Even though we were winning, it wasn’t convincing. You can lose and still be convincing. You can lose a good game, you can lose a close game, but still play well.

“I’m happy enough with that leading into next year’s World Cup.”