Boks target unwanted losing streak against Wales in Cardiff

The Springboks will be aiming to break a four match losing streak at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff when they take on Wales on Saturday in their opening game of their end of year tour to the UK.

Wales only claimed their first ever win over the Boks at the stadium in 1999, before losing their next 16 matches in a row against them before picking up their second win again at home in 2014.

Since then however Wales have won five of the teams’ seven meetings, although the Boks won the most recent at the 2019 World Cup, and have become a bit of a bogey team for the visitors, who will be hoping to put that behind them with a solid win this weekend.

“We haven’t beaten Wales here I think in the last six years, so it’s going to be a very tough game. Wales are currently the Six Nations champions, and I think they just missed out on the Grand Slam by losing in the dying minutes against France,” said Springbok assistant coach Deon Davids from the UK on Monday.

“If you look back to when we played them in the World Cup quarterfinal it was a grind to get a good result. So we have a lot of respect for our opponents and our entire focus is to prepare as best we can for the upcoming game.”

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Wales head into the clash off of a heavy 54-16 loss against the All Blacks, who the Boks beat in their last outing, however it was an under-strength Welsh side with the match outside of the Test window and they will welcome a number of regulars back into the team for this weekend’s encounter.

“I think looking at that game we know Wales will be up for it. They will be very competitive and they will be looking to set things right in terms of the areas (they struggled in) that they identified,” admitted Davids.

“They also have a number of players returning who played for the British and Irish Lions, so there is a lot of depth in the Wales squad, a lot of quality in their backline, a lot of experience up front and also some exciting youngsters coming through, so I foresee that it’s going to be a tough encounter.”

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Wales will also now be nervously waiting on the availability of inspired captain Alun Wyn Jones who suffered a shoulder injury in his record 149^th Test match against the All Blacks and they will be hoping that he will be able to make his 150^th appearance against the Boks.

“It’s a big loss for any team if you lose your captain, especially someone with so much experience and with a unique skill set,” said Davids.

“But they have a lot of quality leaders in the team who can take them forward.”