RUGBY INTERNATIONAL: WALES 31 SOUTH AFRICA 34:NO TEAM have ever retained the World Cup, but South Africa will take some conquering in New Zealand next year. They turned up in Cardiff with a side that will bear little resemblance to the one that starts the Tri-Nations campaign this summer, had only a few days to prepare, and gave Wales a 13-point start before drawing on the reservoir of bloody-minded, combative and mental hardness that makes the Springboks, no matter who is wearing the green jersey, so formidably hard to beat.
They went, as it were, Bok to basics – poise under pressure – while Wales fiddled and burned.
There was a perception during last year’s Lions tour, when several provinces were shorn of their national squad players and offered little resistance, that South Africa lacked strength in depth with so many players earning their livings in Europe, and that they would suffer if the legs of veterans such as John Smit, Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha gave out before next year’s World Cup.
It proved to be a chimera. South Africa’s try scorers on Saturday, Odwa Ndungane, Dewald Potgeiter and Juan de Jongh, had seven caps between them. Potgeiter was into everything, a typical South African loose forward, while De Jongh, a late replacement for the gated Butch James, played with an assurance that belied the fact he was making his debut, recovering from an early crunching tackle by Jamie Roberts to take his score with aplomb, dummying his way between Stephen Jones and Matthew Rees.
There was a certainty about South Africa, the knowledge that no hole was too deep for them to scramble out of. They had looked like a team who had been thrown together when Smit – at the start of the second quarter and who for all his experience is unfamiliar with playing the role of first receiver – threw a pass to James Hook, who seized the opportunity to put Wales 16-3 ahead and on course for only a second victory over the Springboks in 104 years.
“It was a schoolboy error,” Smit said. “I could hardly go behind the posts and tell the boys to toughen up. I asked Victor to have a word.”
Matfield had been looking forward to a week off having helped the Bulls retain their Super 14 title at the end of last month but he flew to Wales after Andries Bekker withdrew with injury, and was subdued in the early exchanges.
He announced himself by stealing a Wales lineout throw from the grasp of Bradley Davies and it was the mixture of the old and new that took the Springboks to their 11th successive victory over the men in red. The energy of Potgeiter, Francois Louw and De Jongh was iced by the knowhow of Smit, Matfield, Jaque Fourie, Joe van Niekerk and Danie Rossouw, and it was Wales, who had spent the week talking themselves up, who became disjointed, the same inconsistency that made their Six Nations campaign so oscillatory.
“We knew it would be hard and physical, but we got a shock in the first 20 minutes,” Fourie said. “We did not panic and went back to basics. Wales have some excellent combinations in their team and they will be dangerous in the World Cup.”
Smit described his side’s performance as “really ordinary” and questioned the refereeing of the scrums, but the result said everything about where the two teams stand. Allowances have to be made for fatigue on both sides, with the game being played on a designated international rest weekend, falling just one week after all the major club/provincial finals in the two hemispheres, but as Wales leave on Wednesday for a two-Test tour to New Zealand, they have issues to address.
The recent Super 14 series showed why South Africa, Australia and New Zealand are all ahead of their European rivals: they trust their skills and their decision-making is sounder. Wales kicked poorly on Saturday, sought contact too often, rocked in the set-pieces, struggled at the breakdown and made basic mistakes.
Their coach, Warren Gatland, showed his frustration by criticising individual players such as the flanker Jonathan Thomas, for conceding a kickable penalty immediately after Wales had gone 16-3 ahead.
As a New Zealander, Gatland has a hard edge. His players, while talented, are mentally softer. Of all Wales’s defeats in 2010 this was the hardest to take for him because it showed that the side, exciting but excitable, lack something that cannot be coached, a focused and ruthless single-mindedness, a quality that keeps South Africa at the top. It’s about what lies within.
WALES:Byrne, Halfpenny, Hook, Roberts, Prydie, S. Jones, Phillips, James, M. Rees, A. Jones, B. Davies, D. Jones, Thomas, Warburton, R. Jones. Replacements: A. Jones for A. Jones (57), Yapp for D. Jones (57), McCusker for Warburton (77). Not Used: Bennett, R. Rees, Biggar, Bishop.
SOUTH AFRICA:Steyn, Aplon, Fourie, de Jongh, Ndungane, Pienaar, Januarie, van der Linde, Smit, Botha, Rossouw, Matfield, Louw, Potgieter, van Niekerk. Replacements: Kirchner for Steyn (75), Basson for Ndungane (33), Ralepelle for van der Linde (74), du Plessis for Botha (57), Hargreaves for Rossouw (76), Kankowski for Potgieter (55). Not Used: Bosman.
Referee: A Lewis (Ireland).
- Australia coach Robbie Deans has named 10 capped Wallabies in the Barbarians team to start against England in Perth tomorrow.
Outhalf Berrick Barnes and number eight Stephen Hoiles will jointly captain the team as both make their return to the international fold.
AUSTRALIAN BARBARIANS(team to play England at ME Bank Stadium, Perth: J O'Connor; N Cummins, W Chambers, A Faingaa, L Turner; B Barnes, J Valentine; P Cowan, H Edmonds, L Weeks, M Chapman, M Chisholm, B McCalman, M Hodgson, S Hoiles. Replacements: D Fitzpatrick, J Slipper, K Douglas, P McCutcheon, L Burgess, K Beale, P Hynes.
- Guardian Service
