Springboks destroy Wales in Cardiff — Four talking points

The Springboks put a young and inexperienced Wales side fully to the sword as they powered to a record 52-16 win in their World Cup warm-up match at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff on Saturday afternoon.

It was important for the Boks to put in a statement win, which they did as they picked up their biggest victory in Wales in their history, eclipsing the 34-22 win at the same stadium back in 2007 which was their previous biggest.

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It was a superb all-round showing with most of the match 23 putting in strong shifts and they will now hope to take this momentum into their final warm-up against the All Blacks at Twickenham next Friday.

Here are four key phases from the match:

Massive 40 minutes from Siya Kolisi

Arguably the biggest plus of the match for the Boks was a massive 40 minute shift from captain Siya Kolisi, on his return to play from a serious knee injury.

Kolisi looked in fantastic nick during the first half, putting in a busy performance. He was active in the loose and did not look afraid as he took contact whenever he had the ball.

Two highlights for him were a strong run that saw him burst over a Welsh defender and offload to Malcolm Marx to score the team’s opener and a superb tracking back tackle that saw him hunt down a Welsh attacker in full flight. He was then taken off at the break as the Bok coaching staff carefully managed his return to play.

Huge forward dominance

The Springboks massive win was setup by the forwards who absolutely dominated the Welsh pack throughout the match. The tone was set by two early scrum penalties, one on their own put in and one on Wales, with the Boks forwards not looking back.

Steven Kitshoff, Malcolm Marx and Frans Malherbe started the game and produced a powerful 46 minute shift as they set the tone and by the time they departed the Boks were 24-9 up.

All three were then replaced at the same time as Ox Nche, Bongi Mbonambi and Vincent Koch replaced them and picked up where they left off by continuing the dominance over the beleaguered Welsh pack.

Libbok’s place kicking and Boks’ high ball game a worry

The only real negatives to take out of the match were the place kicking of Manie Libbok, which is slowly developing into a real worry, and the team’s performance under the high ball which was again poor, similar to what they produced against the All Blacks last month.

It is a real pity that Libbok’s kicking for poles has come massively under the spotlight as they rest of his game is superb.

He offers a great attacking threat, he has a good eye for a gap and his passing is brilliant, although he may look for a crosskick a bit too often.

But his poor showing from the kicking tee over the past two games is a problem that could come back to bite the Boks at the World Cup, with him unsuccessful with four kicks against Wales, two of which he should have easily slotted.

Moodie magic makes things interesting

A very interesting battle is developing in the back three as Canan Moodie’s sublime form is making a strong case for him to be the starting right wing during the Rugby World Cup.

After a massive showing against Argentina, which saw him pick up the man-of-the-match award, he followed that up with another man-of-the-match showing against Wales, scoring two tries and putting in a busy days work.

Before the Argentina game in Buenos Aires it looked like Kurt-Lee Arendse had snuck ahead of Makazole Mapimpi in the pecking order, with Cheslin Kolbe arguably the only nailed on starting wing. But now the Boks have an interesting conundrum on their hands on whether to back Moodie or Arendse.