The Springboks looked to be cruising to a comfortable victory when leading 20-3 shortly after the break but Warren Gatland’s men fought back valiantly and were actually in the ascendancy when the full-time whistle blew.
Wales coach Warren Gatland described the narrow defeat as a lost opportunity of beating one of the top teams in world rugby.
“We are more than disappointed really,” he said. “We’ve talked about evolution in this team and the next step for this team is to nail those opportunites and the guys will have to go through some pain as you do that development. I thought that was a real Test match, a real arm wrestle but we had some chances there, pretty unhappy and I’ve said to the guys they should be pretty disappointed because we were the best team out there today.”
South Africa kicked off and immediatley tested the Wales defence with a series of up and unders. New cap Andy Powell accepted the challenge and commanded the ball with a couple of well taken catches to repel the initial bombardment.
The game burst into life in the sixth minute when centre Adi Jacobs dived over after a sweeping Springbok move which stemmed from another huge kick. The ball was recylced swiftly by the forwards which sent the green machine tearing towards the Welsh try-line. The ball found its way to Jacobs who crashed over to give Ruan Pienaar an easy conversion.
Pienaar increased the lead two minutes later after Jamie Roberts was penalised for not releasing the ball, which gave the outside the opportunity to send the ball between the sticks to give the Boks an 10-0 lead.
Wales finally got a head of steam up on the quarter hour mark and debutant Powell shreaded the Boks defence in the 20th minute with a searing break but the South African rearguard somehow managed to snuff out the attack.
Wales continued to take the attack to the world champions with Shane Williams threatening with his dazzling footwork to set up a penalty opportunity for Stephen Jones from 40m but the fly half was unable to convert the chance.
However after a period of sustained pressure, the Boks were forced into infringing and rookie winger Leigh Halfpenny showed nerves of steel to send the penalty over.
The Springboks blew a golden opportunity to increase their lead when Pienaar dropped the ball over the line in Halfpenny’s tackle. The fly-half quickly made amends when he rifled over a penalty to increase South Africa’s lead to 13-3 with three minutes remaining of the first half.
Halfpenny had the chance to reduce the arrears with the last kick of the half but his long range effort from halfway drifted wide.
The second half began in better fashion for Wales with Halfpenny sending Tom Shanklin clear down the touchline before the cover defence closed down the danger. Lee Byrne tore open the vice-like grip in the 50th minute and only a desperate tackle by JP Pietersen on Halfpenny denied Wales from scoring.
Wales then made a double change James Hook and Dwayne Peel replacing Stephen Jones and Gareth Cooper respectively. Hook’s first pass intercepted by Jean De Villiers who raced 50m unhindered to the try line to give Pienaar another easy conversion to take the score out to 20-3.
Wales then clicked through the gears and tore into South Africa. Byrne made a couple of telling breaks and Ryan Jones was held up just short of the line. Eventually the pressure told and Hook reduced the deficit with a penalty in the 56th minute. Hook made further inroads with another penalty from the same spot two minutes later.
You sensed the tide was turning when Powell’s chip ahead put the Springboks defence in panic mode. Jaque Fourie was sin binned just moments after coming on as a replacement as Wales applied the blowtorch. Hook added salt to the wounds by sending over the resulting penalty to close the gap to 12-20 with 17 minutes remaining.
Wales edged even closed when Hook sent over, via an upright, his third penalty of the afternoon to leave Wales fans biting their finger nails with five minutes remaining.
But despite Wales’s best efforts, the Springboks kept their line intact to begin their end of season tour with a hard earned victory.
