Rugby Union
Wales suffer heavy Nations Championship defeat against seven-try South Africa
Wales failed to score a single point once more against South Africa as the Springboks ran out convincing 43-0 Nations Championship winners in Durban.
South Africa won their previous meeting 73-0 in November when Wales, without England and France-based players in a Test played outside World Rugby’s official window, conceded 11 tries and suffered their heaviest home defeat.
The world champions were nowhere near as ruthless on home soil, but still scored seven tries with Jasper Wiese, Cobus Reinach, Jesse Kriel, Jaco Williams, Herschel Jantjies, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Paul de Villiers crossing.
New boy Vusi Moyo and Marnie Libbok kicked four conversions between them.
Wales could actually call on more caps and experience in the two starting line-ups but were simply unable to combat South Africa’s power game.
This was the Springboks’ 11th consecutive win and their third in the Nations Championship after victories over England and Scotland to take them top of the Southern Section.
Wales were forced into a late change as Josh Adams was ruled out by a calf injury and replaced on the wing by Ellis Mee.
The writing was on the wall in the opening exchanges as Wales fell off tackles in the same fashion as they had done in Argentina the previous week.
Wiese barged through inside five minutes and the Springboks soon set up another attacking position as the Wales scrum retreated at a furious pace.
Reinach darted to the right from another dominant scrum and Moyo landed his second conversion to settle his early nerves.
The game was being played almost entirely in the Wales half, but handling errors in the greasy conditions let the visitors off the hook.
Wales defended well to avoid further punishment before the break but the Springboks extended their advantage from the final play of the first half.
The forwards went through the phases before Moyo sent a cross-kick to the corner, and Jaco Williams beat namesake Tomos to knock the ball down for Kriel to profit.
South Africa claimed their bonus point within 40 seconds of the restart as Jaco Williams took advantage of a loose Wales kick to race over on debut.
Mee almost made the line as Wales enjoyed their best period, but points again proved elusive and normal service was resumed when Jaco Williams sped down the line and found Jantjies waiting inside.
Wales were dealt another blow when replacement prop Ben Warren was given a yellow card and sent to the sin bin after a TMO review picked up his high shot on Marco van Staden.
South Africa inevitably capitalised on their numerical advantage as Arendse and De Villiers’ first Test try put Wales out of their misery.
