Springboks thump Wales: Four key talking points

The Springboks produced a decent performance to cruise to a thumping 45-12 win over Wales in their final end-of-year-tour match at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff on Saturday night.

It sealed a three-nil clean sweep for the Boks on their tour to the UK, but as in their previous wins over Scotland (32-15) and England (29-20) they weren’t at their best as it should have been a much bigger win over the woefully out of form Welsh.

Despite that the Boks can take heart from winning comfortably in all three games, despite not being at their best, while they closed out a brilliant year with 11 wins from their 13 games, while both losses were by a solitary point.

Here are four key moments from the Boks final match of the year:

Dominant first quarter

The Boks enjoyed a ridiculously dominant first quarter and it was a surprise that they only came away with three tries during that period. They had over 70% possession and territory during the first 20 minutes, while Wales had to make over 50 tackles in that period, with them constantly on the back foot throughout. The locks were the first two try scorers, with Franco Mostert running a superb line to burst through and go over.

Eben Etzebeth followed, running a great support line to get the offload from wing Kurt-Lee Arendse, to give the Boks a 12-0 lead after just nine minutes. Arendse got his try, after a lineout in the Welsh 22m was swung out wide quickly, with the wing stepping inside a defender and going over, making it 19-0 after 19 minutes. But the rest of the half the Boks only scored one more, flank Elrigh Louw crashing over, while Wales scored late through wing Rio Dyer making it 26-5 at the break.

Set piece dominance

It was another set piece clinic from the Boks as they absolutely dominated the scrums and lineouts over the match. The lineouts will have pleased the Bok coaching staff the most, as it is an area they have struggled with during the year. However it was immaculate against Wales, with Johan Grobbelaar and then Malcolm Marx putting in pinpoint throws, as they won all 15 of their throws on their own ball, while also stealing two of the Welsh.

The scrum was no surprise, despite the changes, with Thomas du Toit, Grobbelaar and Wilco Louw in an unfamiliar Bok front row. But it was more of the same as they absolutely demolished the Welsh pack, winning almost a penalty at every scrum, while Wales tighthead Archie Griffin was even subbed off in the 35^th minute. Surprisingly the Boks slipped up at two scrums, but won 12 in total, six on their own put in and six out of nine on Wales ball.

Incredibly scruffy start to second half

The Boks had an incredibly scruffy start to the second half as they made a slew of errors, gave away a number of penalties and slipped up after breaking into Wales territory on numerous occasions. Three handling errors from the visitors in the first three minutes of the half set a bad early precedent, and it continued over the first 15 minutes of the half. Three penalties in a row against them saw Wales move from their own 22m to the Boks, while eighthman Jasper Wiese knocked on five metres out.

Fullback Aphelele Fassi finally got them up and running in the 55^th minute, finishing off after Arendse threw a dummy and broke before feeding Fassi to streak away and score. Replacement prop Gerhard Steenekamp drove over for his first Bok try in the 61^st minute, while flyhalf Jordan Hendrikse showed good strength to get over after great work from replacement Cobus Reinach to get him away. Wales finished off with a consolation score to flank James Botham after the fulltime hooter.

Handling errors and missed chances

The Springboks could have easily put 70 or 80 points on Wales, if it wasn’t for a number of handling errors and mistakes on attack and not taking the massive amount of opportunities they gave themselves over the match. Wales also held the Boks up over the tryline four times, three in the first half and once in the second which also stopped them powering to an even bigger win. Over the game the Boks made 11 handling errors, with quite a few on attack deep in Wales territory.

Most other stats were dominant, with the Boks enjoying 61% possession and territory over the game. They made 618 metres, while the hosts made just 84, and produced 15 clean breaks against only one. Wales were made to 216 tackles, to just 93 from the Boks. SO the only disappointment was the Boks only managed to dot down seven tries and win 45-12, when it should probably have been a much bigger win.