Wales proved yet again in the first Test that they are a tough team to beat in an arm wrestle. Having competed so intensely for 79 minutes they had a draw in their grasp before one solitary moment of tactical ineptitude exposed their 13-man defence to one last South African attack.
I thought Dan Biggar led the side perfectly up until that point. Wales were physically outgunned by their superior opponents, but he embodied an unbending and indefatigable attitude to put Wales in that position.
That is the only way to play against the Springboks and it applies to this weekend's second Test, too. You cannot give an inch. They are rugby hard men and if you don’t stand up to them they will crush you. The game was tetchy and fractious. Biggar and his team disrupted and frustrated South Africa as the game descended into a pitch battle.
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That was the only way Wales were going to win and to that end Biggar had done his job. I would be urging Wayne Pivac's team to get straight back in their faces in Bloemfontein. This may be an entirely different Springboks side, but they will have the same mentality and will have been prepared in the same way.
It is beyond me why anyone playing against Wales doesn’t try to just open the game up, raise the tempo and move the ball around. It was crystal clear by the decimation of the Welsh regions in South Africa during the United Rugby Championship that our players could not compete with their opponents when there was a bit of speed of ball.
Thankfully, Jacques Neinaber doesn’t see it like that. I fully expect South Africa to come with the same game plan this weekend. Catch and drive at the lineout is an essential building block in their game plan.
Wales coped superbly with that threat in the first half last Saturday. They got low and tight and forced South Africa to move the ball away from a static maul. This piled the pressure on Elton Jantjies to do something with slow ball, which led to his on-field meltdown.
Nienaber has gone for another 6:2 split on the bench, and like last week the challenge for Wales will be coping with that physicality in the last 30 minutes. Wales couldn’t handle the Bomb Squad replacements last time, as they forced penalties and yellow cards, which eventually sealed the South African win.
I am resigned to the fact that Wales will look to play the same way in the second Test. It works to a degree against the Springboks. I accept that, but I’m not sure it works against many other teams.
Wales have such a good back three, and with George North at 13, I think they could cause real problems for anyone in the wider channels. It would also help in reducing the pressure on the forwards, moving away the close combat stuff and get the ball into the hands of Wales’ most talented individuals.
I was expecting a much-improved performance from South Africa after the rustiness we saw in Pretoria, but after making 14 changes, it hands Wales the advantage of having a game under their belt.
The calls for the inclusion of Dewi Lake to start must have been hard to ignore. However, it may be prudent to use your best hooker to contend with Malcolm Marx in the second half. So I am not sure I would have made any changes either; indeed Pivac hasn't made any in the pack. I too would have stuck with the second-row partnership of Adam Beard and Will Rowlands that is improving and looks like it could be around for a while.
I would have liked to see Josh Navidi in the starting XV, but only if Wales intend to move the ball around, and it appears I’ve lost that argument.
What do you think of the Wales selection and how Pivac's team will fare in the second Test? Have your say in the comments section here.
I also hoped that ‘tinkerman’ Pivac would resist his habit of changing the scrum-half. Kieran Hardy did well enough to keep the shirt.
Louis Rees-Zammit apart, it is hard to judge the three-quarters who were little more than decoration for large parts of the 80 minutes.
What was key last weekend, and will be again, is that Wales are ahead on the scoreboard early on. Wales must not get themselves into a position where they have to chase the game. That is when the wheels can come off.
Angus Gardner takes over the whistle for this one and that has to be a good thing. Game empathy and consistency are the two big improvements Wales will be hoping for from the referee.
I think Wales have a decent chance of getting that first away win over the Springboks this weekend. We’ve got a pretty good idea of what they will face and Wales should be a little better at stopping it. They also have the extra motivation of being slighted after South Africa made so many changes.
Wales know they need a low error count, good discipline and they must stop the driving maul. If they can do that, they have every chance of claiming their place in the history books.
Gwyn Jones is a part S4C’s coverage of Wales’ Summer Tour. Watch highlights of South Africa v Wales at 9pm on Saturday night, on S4C and on S4C Clic.
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