After a depleted Wales side were thrashed 54-16 by New Zealand in Cardiff on Saturday, the nation’s long wait for victory over the All Blacks continues.

Not since December 1953 has a Wales team triumphed over New Zealand.

Since that 13-8 win at the National Stadium in Cardiff, Wales have lost 32 consecutive clashes with the southern hemisphere powerhouses.

Among those losses was a controversial 13-12 defeat on November 11, 1978 – where Wales were robbed of victory by a last gasp penalty.

Playing for Wales on that day was Caerphilly-born Steve Fenwick.

A key member of the Wales side that won two Grand Slams and four Triple Crowns in the late 1970s, Fenwick described the New Zealand defeat as his biggest regret in rugby.

Writing in his newly published autobiography, Dragons and Lions – My Life in Rugby, Fenwick recalls the dying moments of the game, where Wales were leading 12-10 and on course for a first victory against the All Blacks in 25 years.

Fenwick, who won 30 Wales caps between 1975 and 1981 said: “With two well-matched sides, the game was a very close-run contest and it went right down to the wire. Still, the All Blacks found a way to win, and it came in the form of a lineout ruse delivered by Andy Haden and Frank Oliver.

“Haden theatrically dived out of the line as if he’d been hit by a sniper, quickly followed by Frank Oliver.

“I firmly believe that Frank, who we all now know had discussed a last-minute act of skulduggery with Haden, indulged in football tactics by over-exaggerating the contact with Geoff which triggered the referee into giving a penalty. He conned the referee plain and simple.”

Fenwick described the actions of Haden and Oliver as a “disgrace” and a “blatant attempt” to mislead the referee.

“Brian McKechnie scored the penalty to give the All Blacks a narrow 13-12 victory. It was an incredibly frustrating ending to a fabulous game of rugby.”

He continued: “Don’t get me wrong, New Zealand rarely field a poor side and that team of 1978 was a class outfit, but we believed that we were the better team and deserved the victory. We were champions of the northern hemisphere having won the Grand Slam a few months earlier. The changing room was silent for quite a while as we gathered our thoughts. We felt as if we’d been kicked in the guts, denied our first win against the All Blacks since 1953 and, worst of all, there was nothing we could do about it. It was just so brazen.

“The fact that the players later wrote about the incident in a book and openly admitted their plan to dive out of the line is still hard to stomach, but we just had to take it on the chin. We assumed there’d be another opportunity to avenge the defeat before too long, but it turned out to be the closest Wales would get to beating the All Blacks until 2004 when we again lost by a single point (25-26). For me, that was the best chance I’d ever had to beat New Zealand wearing a Wales jersey.

“At the after-match dinner that evening, the Welsh players were still very annoyed at being cheated out of a famous win as we sat down opposite the New Zealand players. There was definitely a bad atmosphere as we dined face-to-face with our opponents, until Geoff Wheel cut through the tension when he loudly requested in front of all the players, ‘Andy, could you dive over here with the salt, and you Frank, can you dive over here with the pepper!’ It melted the ice-cool atmosphere and brought laughter from both sets of players.

“Losing to New Zealand in that manner is still a huge regret in my rugby career, even after all these years. We were so close, yet they found a way to win.”

Dragons and Lions – My Life in Rugby is published by St. David’s Press. A paperback copy costs £13.99, while an eBook edition costs £9.99.