The Springboks’ end-of-year tour came to a disappointing end as they stumbled to an error-ridden 20-11 loss against Wales in Cardiff on Saturday.
Photo:AFP South Africa's fly-half Handre Pollard (C) is tackled by Wales' flanker Ellis Jenkins and Wales' full-back Liam Williams during the autumn international rugby union test match between Wales and South Africa at the Principality stadium in Cardiff
This was the fourth consecutive loss against the Welsh for the Springboks and confirmed why Wales are ranked third in the world, putting a massive dent on the talk of a Springbok revival in the 2018 season.
Wales confirmed their timely run of form, winning their ninth consecutive game on the trot and racking up their biggest scalp of the Autumn season as they easily forced the Springboks onto the back-foot and made them look ordinary all around the park.
In a game that was hardly pretty, Rassie Erasmus’s record was pinned back at 50 percent for both the season and the tour, and left more questions than answers with only four tests left until the Rugby World Cup for the Springboks.
To say this was the worst performance of the season may be cruel, but it certainly was the worst of the tour, and a disappointing way to end the season.
All the momentum and goodwill from the wins over Scotland and France and the near miss against England earlier in the month were turned to mush as the Boks lurched from penalty to penalty and mistake to mistake, failing to trouble the Welsh defence for most of the game and being harassed at the breakdown.
The Welsh defence, which was superb, totally dominated the Springboks at the breakdown, with Ellis Jenkins having a field day in that department, often finding the Bok runners isolated or forcing the Boks into mistakes when they were on attack.
A solitary Handre Pollard penalty was the only thing that the Boks could smile about in the first half, but things got better in the second when they started finding space in the midfield and after eight phases some quick hands from Willie le Roux flipped the ball onto Kriel on the wing who dived in at the corner.
A penalty by Elton Jantjies brought the Boks within three, but then some moments of madness handed momentum back to Wales and took the Boks’ chances of a late victory away.
