Key events
28 mins. More imprecision from the home side allows Beard to snaffle the lineout throw, which Williams runs out of the 22 into safer territory.
26 mins. Du Toit flies high to gather a lineout in the Wales half that rapidly turns into a maul that marches 20 or so metres. In the midst of it there is side entry from Lewis and when the ball is spilled the ref calls the play back from the advantage. It surprises no-one when Moyo opts to find touch in the 22.
23 mins. Wales are getting the ball in and out of the scrum faster than the proverbial through a goose, Wainwright again carrying from the base. Edwards sends it away via his boot, but the Boks soon return to the 22 where Wiese spills the ball.
It’s very damp out there, by the way, hence the skiddy ball.
21 mins. Alex Mann thinks he’s won a ruck penalty by getting his hands on the ball but Ref Brace disagrees, penalising him for hands on the floor. Moyo sends it to touch and his pack spill the ball at the lineout maul. This is frustrating but not terminal for the home side as Wales must navigate a defensive scrum in their own 22.
17 mins. Wainwright has a very good run off a scrum on halfway that Wales manage to win, but the gainline advantage results in little as the Boks get amongst the next ruck and ruin the possession. The ball is kicked behind the Welsh defence with Morgan in all sorts of trouble retreating before being let off the hook by a high tackle from the chasing defence.
14 mins. This already feels like a long evening for Wales, and we’ve barely started.
TRY! South Africa 14 – 0 Wales (Cobus Reinach)
13 mins. The Boks have a scrum on the Wales 5m line, and after one reset the inevitable happens with Reinach simpy picking from the base and sprinting over.
Moyo converts.
11 mins. An ominous passage for Wales from the lineout as a staccato move finds Wainwright, who gets nowhere before Marx has the simplest job of clamping on to win a jackal penalty. That was nothing short of woeful on first phase.
This is worsened when Cobus Wiese rampages clear in the 22 from the next possession, but the ball is lost.
9 mins. A few minutes are taken up with the setting of a Wales scrum that goes to ground once, then brings a penalty for the Boks against Dillon Lewis for losing his feet under pressure. The lineout for the home team is wasted as Moyo encroaches the lineout too early.
TRY! South Africa 7 – 0 Wales (Jasper Wiese)
5 mins. The crowd springs to life for the first time as Fassi steps off his left foot, leaving Edwards standing, to run 15 metres into the Wales half. Two phases later, after a strong run from De Allende, Wiese crashes through some poor tackling in the 22 on a short angle to rumble over.
Conversion added
3 mins. The lineout on the Wales 10m line produces nothing from the Boks and some traded kicks follow,l eading to Moyo sending it too long to allow an easy mark from Murray.
1 min. A loud blast on the ref’s whistle awards a penalty against Alex Mann for some shenegans at the ruck. Moyo sends it to touch,
Speaking of the ref, the officials for today are
Referee: Andrew Brace (Ireland),
Assistant Referees: Pierre Brousset (France) and James Doleman (New Zealand),
TMO: Olly Hodges (Ireland)
Kick Off!
We’re underway.
The teams are out, we await the pre-game formalities before kick off.
Pre game reading
Dave Rennie’s New Zealand project is off to a flyer, read about the latest installment here.
Get in touch, why don’t you? Share all your thoughts, gripes, questions etc on the email.
Teams
South Africa
Aphelele Fassi; Jaco Williams, Jesse Kriel, Damian de Allende, Kurt-Lee Arendse; Vusi Moyo, Cobus Reinach; Gerhard Steenekamp, Malcolm Marx, Carlu Sadie; Cobus Wiese, Ruben van Heerden; Paul de Villiers, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Jasper Wiese.
Replacements: Andre-Hugo Venter, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Wilco Louw, Ben-Jason Dixon, Marco van Staden, Herschel Jantjies, Manie Libbok, Damian Willemse.
Wales
Blair Murray; Louis Rees-Zammit, Max Llewellyn, Ben Thomas, Josh Adams; Dan Edwards, Tomos Williams; Rhys Carre, Dewi Lake, Dillon Lewis; Teddy Williams, Adam Beard; Alex Mann, Jac Morgan, Aaron Wainwright.
Replacements: Ryan Elias, Nicky Smith, Ben Warren, Freddie Thomas, Tommy Reffell, James Botham, Reuben Morgan-Williams, Joe Hawkins.
Preamble
Sometimes, your job is difficult. Whether you’re a mechanic dealing with a tricky gasket, or the customer services desk staff in a supermarket faced with an angry person failing to understand you cannot return worn underwear, but especially if you are the coach of Wales men’s team within the hideous state of the superstructure all around you that apparently passes for the professional running of a major sport. Steve Tandy’s job is very difficult.
Added to this, the final fixture of a tricky summer is South Africa in Durban. Even a rotated Springbok team remains a keen foe, just ask Scotland, and this is what faces the swapped together and underpowered Cymru side today.
For the Boks, with the World Cup just over a year away and key players ageing, this will be another chance for Rassie Erasmus to cast an eye over some prospects for his next great transformation project. Vusi Moyo, the young and very green stand-off one of the more interesting selections.
It wasn’t too long ago that the men in red were securing their first ever Test win on these shores – 2022, Bloemfontain under Wayne Pivac. Today will not be the day they secure their second.
I know whose job I’d rather have.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2026/jul/18/south-africa-v-wales-nations-championship-rugby-live
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