'Absolutely lethal' South Africa v Wales pitch leaves viewers appalled as players struggle to stand

The Cape Town Stadium pitch being used for Wales' deciding Test against South Africa has been slammed as 'absolutely lethal'.

Wayne Pivac's men are looking for another victory to secure a historic series victory, but much of the early discussion online has been about the awful state of the pitch in Cape Town - with the turf cutting up badly in the first-half. Early on in the match, several scrums have been affected by the poor quality of the surface while players have been struggling to stay on their feet.

Josh Adams required some treatment after slipping over, while both George North and Liam Williams lost their feet at times. Many took to social media as a result to offer their thoughts about the shocking state of the pitch.

One remarked that they had "played football in better quality farmer’s fields than this SA pitch", while another compared it to "scrumagging on a swimming pool".

Talksport commentator Andrew McKenna called it "horrendous", while another Twitter user called it "absolutely lethal". Many have questioned how an international rugby match can be played on such a surface.

The state of the pitch was no surprise, after the surface was criticised during the United Rugby Championship final in June. Springboks prop Steven Kitshoff, who played in the URC final, had admitted this week that he was hopeful things had improved since then.

“We haven’t played a game there in about three to four weeks, so I am not 100% sure what the surface looks like at the moment,” he said. “With the URC it was a bit slippery and certain areas of the field were not in great shape but we were promised by the groundskeepers that they would fix the surface and hopefully it holds up this weekend."

You can follow the Wales match live here.

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