Wales were unable to stop overwhelming favourites New Zealand in the Hong Kong Sevens, falling to a 26-7 cup quarter-final loss.
New Zealand extended their record streak with a 40th successive victory – leaving Wales without a win against the All Blacks in 13 attempts – to set up a semi-final meeting with Fiji at the world’s most prestigious sevens event.
The Kiwis breezed through their pool with one-sided victories over Chinese Taipei, Tunisia and the USA, but faced their first real test against Gareth Baber’s men, who qualified for the last eight as one of two best runners-up.
The teams last met in San Diego, where the Kiwis emerged 19-0 winners and Gordon Tietjens’ men once again demonstrated their credentials for a first Hong Kong title since 2001.
Tomasi Cama, the circuit’s leading scorer this season, danced through the Wales defence for a try under the posts to open the scoring.
Desperate defence from Wales kept the Kiwis at bay but a forward pass handed them another opportunity.
From the resulting scrum, Zar Lawrence sucked in three defenders and the ball was moved to Steven Yates who burst through a gap to hand New Zealand a 12-0 half-time lead.
Wales’ Aled Brew made a strong break 50 metres down the left wing, but ran out of support as the Kiwis dominated around the breakdown.
Brew, of the Ospreys, then chipped through and Cama failed to deal with the bouncing ball behind his own goal line and Cardiff’s Richard Pugh touched down.
Cama made amends with his second try of the game, skipping around the attempted tackle of Robert Lewis to leave Wales facing a 12-point deficit going into the final minute of the game.
And Yates crossed for his second of the game on the hooter as Tietjens’ men remained on course for a seventh straight event win – they have won all four tournaments this season and won the final two in 2007.
Victory for New Zealand in Hong Kong would almost certainly result in an eighth IRB World Sevens Series triumph in nine years.
Baber said: “They are pretty unstoppable, but you’ve got to match them physically before you can get anywhere with them and we did that admirably today.
“It bodes well for Adelaide next week.”
Captain Jonathan Edwards added: “New Zealand showed their class.
“There were one or two bounces of a ball, one or two poor passes – you can’t afford to do that against a team like them.
“But I’m very pleased with the boys and how we’ve performed over the weekend.”
