For 70-odd minutes in Bloemfontein, Wales had barely thrown a punch at the Springboks - let alone landed one.
Struggling to deal with South Africa's aggressive defence, Wales didn't have the power to assert themselves on the gainline. As a result, they struggled to make inroads for much of the match, often resorting to forcing passes in a bid to find the South African edge.
Even with the numerous changes, it was an attacking ploy that South Africa had little trouble dealing with. However, as the match wore on, Wales - like they often have done in the past - resembled a discarded piece of chewing gum.
Not exactly nice or appetising to look at, but you try getting it off your shoe. South Africa, despite building a 12-3 lead and benefitting from a contentious yellow card for Alun Wyn Jones, couldn't manage that.
As the clock ticked towards 80 minutes, it became clear this inexperienced South African side, despite having been doing all the punching, was wobbling a little. With the lead reduced to six points, they suddenly became wary that they'd not ended this fight yet and seemed apprehensive that Wales, despite offering little to that point, were within punching distance of the Boks' jaw.
Even so, Wales' slightly impromptu rope-a-dope had shown no real signs of delivering a 12th round haymaker. But then, with just four minutes on the clock, they found the decisive blow.
What was most pleasing is it wasn't just pulled out of a hat. No, this was a finely crafted blow - one that even drew from past experience of beating the Boks. In the space of 57 seconds, Wales had forged a winning score to make history.
It all began with debutant Sam Wainwright staying square in the scrum as Springbok prop Ntuthuko Mchunu walked around to concede the penalty. If Wainwright ever has to buy a pint in his village of Bodelwyddan again, it's a travesty.
From that penalty, Dewi Lake's lineout hit its mark and Wales got rumbling towards the line with the same ferocity and velocity as their late score in Pretoria last week. Unlike last weekend, this maul ground to a halt - illegally - within mere seconds. Penalty advantage coming.
But Wales aren't bothered by that. They sense the opportunity will come with patient pressure. So they revert to a tight carrying game near the Boks' line.
First, Reffell pops it to Lake from the base of the fractured maul to set the standards. Then Alun Wyn Jones carries one out from Tomos Williams. From there on, it's all pick-and-goes as Williams fades into the background to dictate proceedings.
Reffell picks and goes. Then Wyn Jones. Then Navidi. Next, it's Faletau. Then it's Wyn Jones again. Seven strong, tight carries - with each of the Welsh pack hitting at least one of those rucks.
Then the call comes from Williams. They want to get the backs involved as, although the broadcast angle doesn't quite show it, Wales do have numbers. It's not an easy overlap though.
So Reffell pops the ball up Navidi, standing one out from the ruck - but with his back already slightly turned from the South African defence. His intention is to pull the ball back to Williams, who is in motion from squarely behind the ruck, moving out towards the left touchline.
Navidi gives the pass, selling a carry in the first place just enough to give Williams that time to get away from the South African forwards defending the fringes and out to Andre Esterhuizen. Now, the Harlequins centre has to jam in to deal with the livewire Cardiff scrum-half.
As a result, South Africa now have just three backs covering virtually half the pitch. The flat positioning of Nick Tompkins means that Jesse Kriel can't bounce off the Saracen centre when the pass is pulled back to Anscombe, while North's position also forces Kurt-Lee Arendse to hesitate in making a decision.
From the angle behind the posts, you can see how difficult a position the debutant is left in. By the time he reads the pass is going to Anscombe and bounces off North, the Welsh fly-half has had just enough time to wind up his pass.
With full-back Warrick Gelant biting to stop the short-ball threat of Liam Williams, Anscombe lofts it perfectly to Adams. The quality of the pass cannot be overstated.
The Wales winger leaves enough depth on his starting position to take the ball at pace and has the speed to beat the scrambling Gelant - and the desperate inside defence - to score a perfectly executed try in the corner.
57 seconds, eight phases and virtually every player in a red jersey involved somehow. First, Wales sucked in this relentless South African defence, then they undid them with some brilliant accuracy.
The move, designed to give Anscombe space away from the Boks' aggressive blitz, looks familiar because it is. Back when Anscombe was enjoying a run in the starting 10 jersey back in 2018, Wales did something similar against South Africa.
Granted, this was from first phase off a scrum, but the premise of having the scrum-half in motion to suck in the first defender, making the second defender guess between the short option or Anscombe out the back and then sucking in their winger was there in the victory over south Africa in Cardiff four years ago. And, once again, it was supplied with a pitch-perfect looped pass from Anscombe.
Were it not enough that the fly-half had orchestrated a try on a day when it seemed like Wales wouldn't have scored in a month of Sundays, up he stepped to land the match-winning extras from virtually the first row of the stand.
In boxing terms, this was a slugfest for the purists. Thankfully for Wales, they managed to conjure up something a little special just before the bell. Make no mistake, this was a well-worked combo, not a punch-drunk swing in hope, that knocked the world champions down.
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