Ox all smiles after strong Bok showing against Wales

The Springboks made light work of Wales on Saturday when they thrashed them 52-16 in a Rugby World Cup match at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff and for prop Ox Nche it was a happy return to action after several weeks on the sidelines with injury.

Wales fielded a young and inexperienced team that was punished for their naivety in Test rugby; the Boks running in eight tries courtesy of Malcolm Marx, Canan Moodie (2), Jesse Kriel (2), Pieter-Steph du Toit, Damian Willemse and a penalty try.

Nche returned to the action alongside captain Siya Kolisi and scrumhalf Jaden Hendrikse, who also enjoyed positive outings.

‘It felt good’

The Sharks man was encouraged by his performance and that of the collective despite the Boks facing a weaker than normal Wales team.

“It felt good … I can get real confidence from the game. My chest is burning a bit, and my legs are still heavy, but it feels great to be back on the field and representing the county,” Nche told the Boks’ media team after the match in Cardiff.

“It’s a good result for us, and we got to execute what we wanted to,” he said.

Scrum dominance

An area where the Boks were overly dominant was in the scrum, with both the starting pack and the changed front-eight later in the game delivering on the day.

“We did pretty good analysis during the week on it, we worked on it,” said Nche about the scrum.

“As the South African side, that’s one of our big pillars. We put in a lot of hard work, and it’s good to see things go our way.”

Next for the Boks is a date with New Zealand on Friday at Twickenham in London. The match will be the team’s last warm-up game before they turn their attention to defending the Webb Ellis Cup in France from next month.