Wales vs the Boks

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Wales v South Africa
29 November 2014
KO: 14:30
Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
Referee: John Lacey (Ireland)

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Another week of misery for us Welshmen. What a shame, so much to be proud of vs the ABs but the scoreline does not reflect that.

These boys have shown they can push SA and it would be good to take something from this Autumn Series though I doubt many of expect we will.

Will be missing some good players who have to return to their clubs. So will SA.

We also have a good number of worrying injuries. Not sure if the team announcement will be Tuesday or not...?


The boks fielded a few experimental selections last Saturday against Italy in a weakened team. I imagine they will change a few players around and we will see a side similar to that which beat England.

have we paid SA off to lose this?

This should have finished nil nil. God awful game

Bet Wales still lose

Biltong must be raging right now

tigertattie wrote:This should have finished nil nil. God awful game

Feels like 0-0. Won't feel like a win, if we win.

The wait is over, and we needed a fair bit of luck. Unlucky SA, gave us a tough test as always, you're still a class team.

Sorry, but doesn't feel like a victory. Awful, awful game. I know we said before we'd take any sort of win. But I'm not proud of that. We are just not a good rugby nation at the moment.

Congrats to Wales, you've done it.

The Saint wrote:The wait is over, and we needed a fair bit of luck. Unlucky SA, gave us a tough test as always, you're still a class team.

more than abit of luck

Well done Wales

Who cares if it's not pretty.

Good day for the NH!

That's the worst Boks team i've seen since 2003.

Biltong wrote:Congrats to Wales, you've done it.

Thanks Biltong, I don't think you will play that poorly against us again

Boks really let that one go, so many errors.

If Wales had lost that, I would have lost all hope for Welsh rugby

Biltong wrote:Congrats to Wales, you've done it.

Thanks mate. Our tactics were spot on, our execution was terrible. I don't think that was a yellow for your guy either, and your team's error count helped us too.

Well done Wales, monkey off your backs regarding sh teams. Perhaps sonya gave the team some extra motive

Cyril wrote:Well done Wales

Who cares if it's not pretty.

Good day for the NH!

Take it a good day for England then, as I haven't caught up yet.

Well done lads.

Le roux tho......

The Saint wrote:

Biltong wrote:Congrats to Wales, you've done it.

Thanks mate. Our tactics were spot on, our execution was terrible. I don't think that was a yellow for your guy either, and your team's error count helped us too.

The less said about the card, the better mate. In fact not much to say about the game either. Much of it was a lottery

Well done Wales, good to finish with a couple of NH wins! Everytime i switched back to the Wales game Biggar seemed to be mullering a Bok forward!!

Biggar was immense!

Not at Sexton's level yet but he is still nly 24

monty junior wrote:That's the worst Boks team i've seen since 2003.

Here we go. Yes it was a poor/2nd string SA team. But think how many sh@t Wales teams the Boks have faced over the years. Yet all we here about is their win record, not the crap teams the've faced.

Biltong wrote:

The Saint wrote:

Biltong wrote:Congrats to Wales, you've done it.

Thanks mate. Our tactics were spot on, our execution was terrible. I don't think that was a yellow for your guy either, and your team's error count helped us too.

The less said about the card, the better mate. In fact not much to say about the game either. Much of it was a lottery

Fair enough, just wanted you to know I would understand if you were that disappointed by it. Still a lot of work to be done for us, hopefully we start by addressing our strength in depth... For now I'll take the 6 point win, it wasn't as pretty as our first game of this series, but hell I'll take it!

Just leave it griff and bask in the glory. We can discuss the 5 changes made by Wales tomorrow .

Awful game, but we have been saying for years we would take a bad win over a spectacular loss.

Dan Biggar won that game for us, any other Welsh flyhalf started we would have lost. Rhys Webb also very influential.

Webb and Biggar are bring the kind of changes we saw brought in by Faletau, Warburton etc during the last World Cup

Not a pretty affair at all. SA couldn't have put it on a better plate but Wales truly did all in their power to hand it back. How many chances to close out games do we need? Despite the win, the mental frailties of this Welsh side were as clear as ever.

Not that I care much on this occasion. Still need to wait a few minutes to make sure this one's real.

We just need to get our replacement half-backs now. So that will be Gareth Davies and potentially Patchell, O.Williams, Anscombe??

Griff wrote:

monty junior wrote:That's the worst Boks team i've seen since 2003.

Here we go. Yes it was a poor/2nd string SA team. But think how many sh@t Wales teams the Boks have faced over the years. Yet all we here about is their win record, not the crap teams the've faced.

Nah sorry it was a huge win for Wales i just couldn't believe SA were so bad at basically everything. The were very predictable, continued to lack numbers in the rucks even though they were getting turned over, poor kicking, knocks on's, forward passes. You at least thought at the end they would show something but a horrendous kick to touch, horrible lineout then a knock on completed the match with a pass 2 yards forward. Lambie has about as much composure as Dan Parks.

You at least thought at the end they would show something but a horrendous kick to touch, horrible lineout then a knock on completed the match with a pass 2 yards forward. Lambie has about as much composure as Dan Parks.

Lambie wasn't playing the last 27 minutes.

monty junior wrote:

Griff wrote:

monty junior wrote:That's the worst Boks team i've seen since 2003.

Here we go. Yes it was a poor/2nd string SA team. But think how many sh@t Wales teams the Boks have faced over the years. Yet all we here about is their win record, not the crap teams the've faced.

Nah sorry it was a huge win for Wales i just couldn't believe SA were so bad at basically everything. The were very predictable, continued to lack numbers in the rucks even though they were getting turned over, poor kicking, knocks on's, forward passes. You at least thought at the end they would show something but a horrendous kick to touch, horrible lineout then a knock on completed the match with a pass 2 yards forward. Lambie has about as much composure as Dan Parks.

I think wales looked desperate out there. Desperate for the win, and that led to some rubbish skills. SA looked a bit tired too. But they could so easily have sneaked it. We were lucky a times. But in terms of territory, possession and turnovers (haven't seend the actual stats though) I thought Wales should have won by a much greater margin.

Indeed, that was more an overview of his performance when he was on.

The Saint wrote:We just need to get our replacement half-backs now.

You can say that again!

Gareth Davies is quality, it will be good so have him back. Behind that we have Rhodri how is promising and then Aled Davies and Lloyd Williams (who is playing very well atm)

We don't need Mike Phillips anymore.

At flyhalf, we have nobody to match Biggar. Owen Williams and Patchell are promising, but i'm afraid Gatland will stick with Preistland in the World Cup.

We just need to hope Biggar stays fit, or we are doomed.

Well played Wales, some really good performances, particular in the pack and from Biggar. Matched the boks physicality out there and after that they had no real attacking ideas to break down a solid Welsh defence.

Well done Wales. Really chuffed. Watched the game on super fast forward after the England game.

HammerofThunor wrote:Well done Wales. Really chuffed. Watched the game on super fast forward after the England game.

probably the best way

Our 9, 10, 12 combo is looking effective. The No.13 out there hasn't really cut it for me in the past two games. Also, our back-row unit now that they're finally all fit seem to have returned to their good form but I still think Baker deserves a shot at some point, as does Navidi. Occasionally we've gone backwards in the scrum. That was never an issue with Adam Jones and a younger Gethin Jenkins, so we still need to grow our resources in that area.

Yeah, the successful parts of our games this autumn have come from 6-7-8-9-10-12

It's nice to know players like Victor Matfield and Jean de Villiers (hope he's ok) now have a loss on their record vs Wales. It's been a long, long time coming but we had to give em at least one eventually.

Great for Team Wales now, but these players now have to go back to their Regions after being flogged for a month and get ready for European action. Feel sorry for them. Those hits against NZ and today are really going to tell.

I'm pleased Wales have won today going forward, but it seems that everybody is happy to forget the farce of the extra AI now. It's funny how the one person to mention it after the game (I think) is the one who supports the region with only one Team Wales starter in.

I know plenty of others might not rate him cos they think he been 'overatted' in past, and I'd agree. However I think Sam Warburton has been absolutely fantastic and IMO has now stepped up to being one of best 7s in the world. He really played well. Was watching game today and he was everywhere.

wales606 wrote:Yeah, the successful parts of our games this autumn have come from 6-7-8-9-10-12

AWJ and Ball look good together too.

Someone give Roberts some chalk for his butterfinger hands

Yes Warburton has been fantastic all Autumn. Hope he is over his injuries now, as he is a massive player for us when on form (which always coincides with a run of games).

kingjohn7 wrote:I know plenty of others might not rate him cos they think he been 'overatted' in past, and I'd agree. However I think Sam Warburton has been absolutely fantastic and IMO has now stepped up to being one of best 7s in the world. He really played well. Was watching game today and he was everywhere.

Yep, he has proved all his critics wrong and is certainly the best 7 in the NH at the moment if you ask me.

IronMike wrote:Someone give Roberts some chalk for his butterfinger hands

When he's meant to hold onto it he knocks it on and when he should pass it seems to be stuck to his hands like glue!

Well Done Wales! Right strategy with the better execution

Great result. Not the prettiest game but a deserved win

Well done Wales. Picked both games to go to the NH. Wales managed to hold on in an all out slog. Great for Wales to finally get a win over a SH team and overall it looks like the NH is now much more competitive.

Hard luck Boks. End of season, last match battle of attrition told.

Mentioned it earlier that squad depth, fitness and impact at the end of the SH season would be critical here. That is the key learning point for next year. By preserving his squad and learning from the last two years last Hansen ensured the ABs were the only side still able to play high quality rugby in the final minutes of the season.

Both todays games were two tired teams at the end where the side that made least mistakes- and had less injuries, and there were plenty of both-would win.

Next years knockouts will be like this for any SH side that makes it, so depth, impact and squad management have been proven here as the key World cup learning points. At least our RC is shortened but all I saw today was four stuffed sides.

Morning Folks, Ive only seen a News Highlights package (which wasnt very long) but will say:

Congratulations Wales, Welsh fans and Gatty.
Wales have played two big back to back games in 7 days, thats not a bad little rehearsal of things to come.

Commisserations South Africa, Most interested to hear how the JDV injury pans out, he is truely one of the marquis players of International rugby.

Well deserved win for Wales, although not a great game for the neutral.

Looks like SA have as little strength in depth as all the other teams (bar NZ).

Now if we can just get France to knock the ABs out in the RWC then the competition is wide open.

aucklandlaurie wrote:
Morning Folks, Ive only seen a News Highlights package (which wasnt very long) but will say:

Congratulations Wales, Welsh fans and Gatty.
Wales have played two big back to back games in 7 days, thats not a bad little rehearsal of things to come.

Commisserations South Africa, Most interested to hear how the JDV injury pans out, he is truely one of the marquis players  of International rugby.

yeah looked bad. Could end up being a plus for the Boks if it gives him half the Superxv season off. I'm convinced the key to SH success next year is player and team management from today forward. Our sxv sides went into pre-season training this week.