Key events
76 mins. A tired set in the middle of the park has the ball loose on the ground for Wales to hack it forward to start a big chase. There are plenty players within a grasp of the ball, but it ends up rolling dead.
TRY! Wales 0 – 73 South Africa (Eben Etzebeth)
74 mins. The scrum is a mess from Wales with Morse fumbling his pickup at the back. Possession goes back to South Africa who waste no time getting to the line for Etzebeth to score.
The conversion is missed.
73 mins. One thing that Wales can take as a positive from this game is that they’ve done a great job containing every Boks maul, and they do it again here as the visitors attempt to drive over from a lineout. The Welsh get amongst it to prevent the ball coming out and win a scrum.
70 mins. More easily contained attacking patterns by Wales on halfway, this time ended by Kwagga Smith clamping on the ball at the ruck to win a penalty.
TRY! Wales 0 – 66 South Africa (Ruan Nortje)
68 mins. The latest crumpling of the Welsh scrum leads to an attack on a penalty advantage that ends with a forward pass to Willemse. Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu taps the next penalty and races towards the posts where he is held up, but three phases later Nortje forces over.
65 mins. Every attack Wales attempt is snuffed out by either the Bok defence line smothering their passing, or a misdirected cross-kick option after the previously described passing effort becomes to sorrowful to attempt another time.
TRY! Wales 0 – 61 South Africa (Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu)
63 mins. Ball off the top of a lineout finds Esterhuizen on another booming crash-ball run into the Wales red zone. On the next phase the defence and sixes and sevens can do little to prevent Feinberg-Mngomezulu waltzing over.
60 mins. Lake has a run from a tap and go and is rattled by a big hit before Mann has a go himself. He runs a little too far away from his supporting clearout runners, and that split second on the ground is all Esterhuizen needs to get his hands on it to win a holding on penalty.
The Boks defence celebrate like it’s a last minute win, such is their way.
58 mins. The home side are camped out on the Bok 5m line, with the visiting defence repeatedly giving away offside penalties. On the advantage Murray is found in the 13 channel and he attempts to step his way through the tackles without success.
56 mins. Wales have their best period of the game with Sheedy conducitng the attack, left and right, with some clever cross-kicks from him and Hawkins. The Bok defence is up to the task, but not without infringing at a ruck on the 22.
YELLOW CARD! Aaron Wainwright (Wales)
In the run up, Wainwright was high in the tackle and his shoulder made contact with the head. He’s off and the bunker will review it.
TRY! Wales 0 – 54 South Africa (Andre Esterhuizen)
53 mins. Every possession from the Boks in the Wales half now results in a try, pretty much. The latest is a simple draw and pass move repeated all the way left to the big centre to race over on the left touchline.
52 mins. Wales have a lineout just inside the Bok half as Rassie empties the bench and makes all eight replacements in one go. The ball is won by the home side and moved left, but there’s an understandable desperation about their passing and the final one is behind Mee and into touch.
TRY! Wales 0 – 49 South Africa (Canan Moodie)
49 mins. There is some Wales possession in the Bok half, which moves the ball left and right, but it’s very lateral and ultimately leads to the ball going to ground. This is leapt on by Moodie who boots it forward to chase to the line, gather it and score with three Welsh defenders trailing in his jetwash.
TRY! Wales 0 – 42 South Africa (Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu)
46 mins. It looks like Wales have done a good job spoiling SA possession but the ref concludes it was hands in the ruck. This gives Feinberg-Mngomezulu to quickly tap the ball and race 30 metres to the line.
He converts his own score.
YELLOW CARD! Taine Plumtree (Wales)
Plumtree was offside in the run up to the try and pays the price for the consistent offside infringements by his team.
TRY! Wales 0 – 35 South Africa (Wilco Louw)
44 mins. Wales do another great job of defending a Bok maul from a lineout close to the line which forces the ball to the backs. But the effort undertaken to contain the maul means there a gaps elsewhere and Louw is over.
42 mins. Some phases with the ball in the middle third by South Africa lead to Wales being offside in defence. They are understandably attempting a big blitz, but timing was slightly off.
Second Half
The game is afoot once more
More half-time postbag, this one from Matt Dony
“The WRU should have been watching the Welsh FA closely over the last 15 years or so, and taken copious notes. The Welsh FA has made so many good decisions, put the fans first, employed the right people with the right experience, used the budget fairly across all Welsh football, just generally helped the game to flourish.
Yes, I know it’s different, but the WRU haven’t done ANY of those things. And the results speak for themselves. A game against the Springboks, and the stadium is nowhere near full? It’s just another symptom of a deeper malaise. Richard Collier-Keywood boasted about how he has ‘fun in this job, every day.’ Those attached to Scarlets and Ospreys, who don’t know whether they have a future and can’t make plans, are not having fun. The fans paying extortionate prices to watch poor performances are not having fun. The whole set-up is just not good enough.”
“Your tone is patronising and unfair.” says Gareth Thomas “This game was arranged when Wales were in their pomp. There has to be a rebuilding process and there is much to praise in this Autumn series.”
This fixture was arranged in COVID, and there has been plenty of contracts and agreements that were decided as not needed since then. Wales have also played SA seven times since 2020, so dropping this one would not have been a hardship for anyone. Wales also finished that year losing 32-9 to Ireland, so I don’t agree with your definition of their status at that time.
I agree that there are some positives from this Autumn for Wales, which I referenced in the preamble as being another reason why this fixture was a stupid idea given it was always likely to be this way. Now the last fixture of the series is an utter pasting
This game has nothing to do with a rebuilding process and everything to do with the WRU being utterly dreadful at their job.
Half time!
PEEEEEEP! That’s last act of an entirely expected half of rugby.
TRY! Wales 0 – 28 South Africa (Morne van den Berg)
40+3 mins. An absolutely massive carry by Esterhuizen clatters to within a metre and two short phases later the scrum half is over to score.
40+1 mins. South African rampage 80 metres back the other way and are hammering away at the Wales line. The ball is fumbled, but the defence were offside and so the visitors will go again before half time.
39 mins. A strong maul in the middle of park by Wales is followed by a good claim of a kick chase by Dyer. The ball is fizzed to Edwards who tries to locate Mee in acres of space on the right with a cross-kick. It’s overcooked and Mee can only screw his attempt to volley it into touch.
38 mins. A Boks catch and drive inside the 22 is held still by Wales, which forces the visitors to move it out to the backs. They move it all the way to the right where Willemse joins the line out wide, but a double tackle from Roberts and Dyer stops him and forces a penalty.
35 mins. The lineout, the one thing that has functioned for Wales in this game, chooses now to go haywire with Lake overthrowing Mann at the tail. The loose ball is pounced on by Edwards but his team mates are penalised for sealing off when they arrive to assist him.
33 mins. WALES HAVE WON A SCRUM PENALTY! Blow the whistle, stop the count, end the game, etc, for surely it cannot get better than this.
22m lineout for Wales incoming.
TRY! Wales 0 – 21 South Africa (Jasper Wiese)
30 mins. Kolisi has a dart at the line from short metres after another imperious march into the Wales 5m area from his forwards. The captain is held up short and the ball is flung wide towards Hooker but it drifts forward.
There was an advantage being played however, and South Africa take the scrum option and snowplough Wales off their path for Wiese to dot it down.
28 mins. The plan for Wales on their own scrum is to get the ball in quick then boot it back to Wainwright to pick up as quick as he can. This has worked well twice now, and the latest version here allows Hardy to clear the ball.
26 mins. Excellent maul defence from Wales at the lineout forces it to the ground where the ball is trapped in. Wales must now weather a head and feed scrum on their own 5m line.
24 mins. Another scrum, another total folding of the Wales pack leads to a penalty. There is an attempt to run the advantage, but it comes to nothing, so SA set up for a 5m lineout.
22 mins. Wales have their best couple of minutes of the game with a well won lineout leading to an attack in the SA half. The ball is fizzed around before a clever kick from Murray puts Willemse under some pressure; that is immediately relived when Murray get his arms too high in the tackle and catches the Bok fullback’s head.
19 mins. South Africa are warming up now, with Feinberg-Mngomezulu to the fore dancing through a gap and finding Kolisi with an offload. The ball is recycled quickly on the 22, but Esterhuizen can’t hold the next pass.
Wales quickly fish the ball out of the resulting scrum and send the ball away via the boot.
17 mins. The ball is fumbled forward by a Wales hand on the restart, which means another scrum for Wales to survive. It takes a while to set before eventually the ref awards a free kick against SA for early engagement. Small victories.
TRY! Wales 0 – 14 South Africa (Ethan Hooker)
14 mins. Another Bok scrum puts a lot of pressure on the Wales pack, but this time on the penalty advantage they move to the blind side, with Feinberg-Mngomezulu drifting across the defence. His lateral movement creates a two-on-one out wide that Hooker takes advantage of.
Another two points added.
11 mins. Wales defended that SA set pretty well, which I know sounds daft seeing as they conceded a try, but the organisation and physicality was good for large parts of it. There’s some more positives for the home side when Hawkins and Roberts combine in midfield to very nearly create a chance for Mee to have run up the touchline. The pass from Roberts is just behind the winger, however.
TRY! Wales 0 – 7 South Africa (Gerhard Steenekamp)
9 mins. The visitors are up to double figures phases of punishing carries in the Wales 22, and the inevitable comes when the big prop crashes over with a run from three metres.
Two points added from the tee.
6 mins. It’s taken six minutes, but the first scrum penalty is awarded against Wales after the Boks drop the hammer and shove the Welsh pack back to Bridgend, splintering it along the way.
4 mins. Two passes are all that’s needed from the Boks to get Moodie running outside Mee on the blindside . The SA winger then completely airswipes his attempt to kick the ball forward to start a foot race with the retreating defence which cues some laughs from the crowd. Gotta take your fun where you can find it at Wales games these days…
2 mins. Wales have the first lineout of the game on their own 22 after Willemse finds touch. Lake fires it long over the top to Mann running, but it comes to little and the ball is kicked away by Hardy.
Kick Off!
Dan Edwards boots the ball high to get us underway.
Our man in the stadium, Michael Aylwin, has this “The Principality Stadium is not full. They reckon on about 50,000. The roof is closed and the Welsh anthem ringing out with the usual gusto. Come back at full-time to check the latest update on the health of Welsh rugby”
The teams are out into the covered stadium in Cardiff. There are lots of empty seats as the teams settle in for the pre-match formalities.
Pre match reading
Have a read of Dan Gallan’s reflections on the November just gone
As you can tell, I’m not happy with the WRU. You may have a different view and you can share that, or anything else with me on the email.
Teams
The big selection news is that Rassie Erasmus has gone back to his patented 7-1 bench, with scrum-half Cobus Reinach the only back selected as cover.
The Wales bench has a total of 39 caps, while the Boks have 359. This is just one example of the experience gap between the two teams, and that’s before you consider the ability gap. The game could be a good development experience for the unfledged home squad, but it could also get very messy.
Wales
Blair Murray; Ellis Mee, Joe Roberts, Joe Hawkins, Rio Dyer; Dan Edwards, Kieran Hardy; Gareth Thomas, Dewi Lake, Keiron Assiratti, Ben Carter; Rhys Davies, Taine Plumtree, Alex Mann, Aaron Wainwright.
Replacements: Brodie Coghlan, Danny Southworth, Chris Coleman, James Ratti, Morgan Morse, Reuben Morgan-Williams, Callum Sheedy, Ben Thomas.
South Africa
Damian Willemse; Ethan Hooker, Damian de Allende, Andre Esterhuizen, Canan Moodie; Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Morne van den Berg; Gerhard Steenekamp, Johan Grobbelaar, Wilco Louw; Jean Kleyn, Ruan Nortje; Siya Kolisi, Franco Mostert, Jasper Wiese.
Replacements: Bongi Mbonambi, Zachary Porthen, Asenathi Ntlabakanye, Eben Etzebeth, Marco van Staden, Ben-Jason Dixon, Kwagga Smith, Cobus Reinach
Preamble
It is tempting at this point to describe the Welsh Rugby Union as a clown show. But that would unfairly overlook the commitment and dedication, training, expertise, and preparation to produce that circus based entertainment. The public also respects clowns, even the ones that oddly fear them.
The WRU are more like a Baboons On LSD show. Wherein a large group of hallucinating monkeys run about screaming, break everything in the building then start viciously eating each other, with little regard for the paying audience.
The latest symptom of this corporate approach from the custodian of the game of rugby union in Wales is today’s match. Scheduled as it is outside the agreed international window, this means that an already challenged Wales team is shorn of its non-Wales based players, while the nation’s domestic pro clubs are having to field teenagers and rugby pensioners in league games on the same day.
But wait, it gets worse. The national side are also having to play against the most powerful force in world rugby at present, as the Springboks arrive in Cardiff having put every team they’ve faced this November through their industrial shredder. This is all the more galling in the context of the Wales vs New Zealand match last week, a performance of small comforts from the men in red when all expected a walloping for the ages.
Well, barring a miracle, that’s what coming today while in the domestic United Rugby Championship, the pro clubs of Cymru face their own daunting tasks.
So, an egregious example of rugby governance and planning all round from the national union. The players and public have been shamefully let down for the best part of a decade (and more) and the scenario this weekend is the crowning top hat full of turds that exemplifies the whole mess. At this point, it might actually be worth letting the baboons have a go. How much worse could it be?