Tries

Dewi Lake (31′)

Conversions

Sam Costelow (32′)

Penalties

Sam Costelow (7′)(35′)

Cards

Yellow: Rio Dyer (12′), Aaron Wainwright (15′)

While Sandy Park was hosting the Premiership Women’s Rugby Final and England were kicking off their summer tour in Tokyo, Twickenham found itself hosting Test rugby in the form of South Africa v Wales. With the match being played outside World Rugby’s Test window, and the URC final (including South African franchise the Bulls), both teams found themselves with a number of players either injured or unavailable for release.

Given recent form and the number of players missing, Welsh fans must have been worried as to how this match could go, and they were given an early let-off as Jordan Hendrikse, playing today as a fly half rather than his usual scrum half position, pushed an easy penalty wide of the posts. However the reprieve was short-lived, as from the resulting drop-out, Wales’ defence got their defensive line horribly wrong at the first breakdown, leaving South Africa with a 4v1 out on the wing that saw Makazole Mapimpi round the defence and feed Jesse Kriel for the opening try after just 3 minutes.

Sam Costelow was able to open his account a few minutes later with a penalty, but Wales were soon on the back foot again as their scrum——already a notable weakness during the Six Nations—was dominated by the Springbok pack, and when the impressive Evan Roos broke through from halfway to be stopped just short, things got worse for Warren Gatland’s men as Rio Dyer was sent to the bin for a cynical killing of the ball, and South Africa kept the pressure on with a siege on the line, forcing a number of other infringements in quick succession before a penalty try and yellow card for Aaron Wainwright for illegal entry to the maul, while Costelow missed an easy penalty a few minutes later as Wales looked to see out the rest of the yellow card period without further damage, almost scoring a try against the run f play as Liam Williams intercepted and set up a counterattack that was unfortunately ended by a handling error from scrum half Ellis Bevan—an unfortunate blot on an otherwise solid debut.

Back to a full contingent, Wales were looking to make a game of it, but struggled to make any impact against the South African defences, leading to them soon kicking possession away. And when Aphelele Fassi made contact on landing with Taine Plumtree, he was given a yellow card for foul play as his boot went into Plumtree’s neck/shoulder area. And though Wales saw their lineout stolen after kicking to the corner, it was not claimed cleanly by the Boks, allowing hooker and captain Dewi Lake to win the loose ball back and go over for a try on the half hour mark, Costelow’s conversion from the touchline cutting their deficit to 4 points. South Africa’s indiscipline was keeping Wales in the game, with even their scrum betraying them, and Costelow soon added another penalty following a deliberate knock-on from Roos, before threatening with a lovely cross-kick which Liam Williams won against Hendrikse, only for his one-handed offload to be a little too high and result in a knock-on from Cameron Winnett when he had the potential to break down the right wing untouched.

With only a 14-13 lead at the break, it’s easy to imagine that Rassie Erasmus was far from happy, and it looked like his words had an impact. An early penalty saw Faf de Klerk up the temp with a quick tap, and after a couple of phases through the forwards, the ball was spread wide to send Mapimpi over in the corner, though Kriel’s final pass looked suspiciously forward. The South African “Bomb Squad” began to come on in following minutes to secure the scrum, and the set piece soon earned them a penalty which Hendrikse kicked successfully. And as the Springboks began to dominate possession, Ben Carter was perhaps lucky to not receive a card after making contact with Frans Malherbe’s neck in a tackle, with referee Chris Busby of the opinion that both parties entered the contact low, creating sufficient mitigation. The penalty still brought the Boks right up to the 5m line though, and as they went through the phases, Evan Roos was just held up over the line with his final involvement before being replaced, as Wales continued to defend with everything they had.

Indiscipline from the World Champions still continued to give Wales cheap possession and territory, and as the hour approached, a Welsh driving maul was adjudged to have been just held up over the line, while their next kick to the corner went too long and flew beyond the try line, while Bongi Mbonambi avoided a card for head-to-head contact with Gareth Thomas as both parties were again judged to have lowered their height sufficiently to create mitigation. However, as hard as they fought, Wales continued to struggle to regularly cross the gain line, and they were made to pay for their lack of attacking edge late on as replacement fly half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu opened his Test rugby point account with a penalty from inside his own half, before another penalty to the corner saw Mbonambi driven over for a try.

With the game entering the final 10 minutes, Costelow and Mason Grady were removed for young debutants Eddie James and Jacob Beetham, but there was nothing either of them could do as 28-year-old debutant Edwill van der Merwe danced his way around the side of a ruck and switched on the afterburners to go under the posts from 40 metres out. There was one more chance for Wales as they kicked a penalty deep to the corner, but Liam Williams was beaten to Gareth Davies’ clever chip into the in-goal by the impressive Kriel to secure a 41-13 victory.

While the score is not one that Wales will be happy with, given Wales’ form and current inexperience (exacerbated by injuries and their missing Premiership players), the team should be proud of how they held on against the World Champions after such a poor opening 15 minutes, with the parity in the middle half of the game especially notable. As for South Africa, this was certainly a team that was lacking some of its usual chemistry as they played their first Test in over 200 days while also brought in some new, inexperienced players in some key positions, but it also looked as if the team was trying to build a more expansive game that we have been used to seeing from them under Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber. It will be interesting to see if they go back to type as they host Ireland this summer or continue to open things up…