Barrett to captain All Blacks as Wales recall Basham for Cardiff test

Wales will walk out at Principality Stadium on Saturday chasing the most stubborn statistic in international rugby, while New Zealand will walk out behind a captain wearing the armband for the first time. Beauden Barrett leads the All Blacks into the Nations Championship meeting in Cardiff, and Taine Basham returns to the Wales starting side after more than two years away from Test rugby, in a match that asks very different questions of both teams.

The fixture, on Saturday 14 November 2026 with a 14:10 kick-off, is the fifth round of the Nations Championship. Wales arrive after a 28-21 win over Japan last weekend, while New Zealand arrive unbeaten on tour. Wales have not beaten New Zealand since a 13-8 victory in 1953, and the All Blacks have won 34 successive meetings since then.

Basham's long road back

Steve Tandy has made four changes to the Wales side that beat Japan, and the most striking of them is at number eight. Taine Basham starts there in place of Aaron Wainwright, who is unavailable because of a minor calf injury. Basham is set to make his first Wales appearance since the 2024 Six Nations, a gap of 32 months that Cardiff Rugby described as the reward for a series of impressive performances for his club.

Tandy said: "I'm delighted that Taine gets an opportunity this weekend. It's been a while since his last appearance for Wales but he didn't give up and has put in a lot of dedication and hard work to get back."

Basham is not the only change in the back row. James Botham moves into the starting side at blindside flanker after coming off the bench against Japan, with Jac Morgan retaining his place on the openside. Adam Beard returns to the second row alongside Dafydd Jenkins, while the front row of Nicky Smith, captain Dewi Lake and Archie Griffin is unchanged.

The one change in the backline is on the left wing, where Gabriel Hamer-Webb is handed his first appearance in the Nations Championship in place of Josh Adams. He joins Blair Murray and Louis Rees-Zammit in the back three, with Sam Costelow and Tomos Williams again the half-back pairing.

Tomas Francis has been ruled out of the rest of the Nations Championship after a knee injury in training, and Keiron Assiratti has been called into the wider Wales squad as cover.

Barrett's first captaincy

New Zealand have made eight changes to the starting side that overwhelmed Scotland 43-21 in Edinburgh last week, and ten changes in total to their match-day 23. The headline is at full-back, where Beauden Barrett will captain New Zealand for the first time in his 149th Test. The 35-year-old takes over the captaincy from rested hooker Codie Taylor, having been preferred as skipper to his brother Scott Barrett, who is named in the second row.

Richie Mo'unga returns at fly-half in one of the most significant of those changes. Mo'unga has not featured since the fourth Test against South Africa in Baltimore in September, when New Zealand were beaten 43-28, and a calf tear then ruled him out of the Bledisloe Cup matches against Australia. He replaces Damian McKenzie, who is rested after a heavy workload, and his return gives the All Blacks a proven controller at ten alongside Cortez Ratima at scrum-half.

The visitors have kept key players fresh with next week's meeting with England and the finals weekend at Twickenham in mind. Fehi Fineanganofo and Josh Moorby start on the wings, Anton Lienert-Brown and Quinn Tupaea form the midfield, and Wallace Sititi, Peter Lakai and Anton Segner make up the back row.

What is at stake in Cardiff

For Wales, the prize is more than a famous win. A victory could lift Tandy's side as high as second in the Northern Hemisphere pool, a striking reward for a team that was far from convincing against Japan. Tandy accepted that his side must improve sharply, saying after naming the team: "We're excited for the opportunity we have against New Zealand. It was good to get the win last Saturday, but some elements of our execution weren't where we wanted. We have to go up another level this weekend and be more ruthless. We want to be better and put in an 80-minute performance."

For New Zealand, the task is to protect a record that has defined this fixture for 73 years while managing a squad through a demanding schedule. Even a much-changed side starts as a heavy favourite in Cardiff, and the All Blacks will expect their depth to show against a Wales team still building under Tandy. Yet the visitors know the Principality Stadium crowd, and a Wales side with nothing to lose, can turn a routine assignment into a genuine contest if the opening quarter is allowed to drift.

Wales close out their Nations Championship campaign at home to Australia the following weekend, so Saturday is also a measure of how far this group has come. The selections tell their own story: a home side trusting a returning back-rower and a debutant winger, and a visiting side handing its most experienced player the captaincy for the first time. The history says New Zealand win. The occasion, as ever in Cardiff, says Wales will make them earn it.