Wales fell agonisingly short of a first ever win on South African soil in an astonishing Test match for the ages at Loftus Versfeld.
Wales went from looking likely winners to losers in the space of two and a half minutes at the end of a heart-stopping affair at altitude.
When replacement hooker Dewi Lake scored from a rolling maul late on, Dan Biggar had the chance to put the visitors 31-29 ahead from the conversion. He missed what was a tough opportunity, but a draw looked like it had been secured, at least – even though Wales were down to 13 men at that stage because of yellow cards.
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Then Biggar was penalised in injury-time for a deliberate knock-on of Willie le Roux’s pass and 'Bok full-back Damien Willemse landed a penalty which gave the world champions a victory they were mightily relieved to secure.
All this after two tries from wing Louis Rees-Zammit had helped craft an 18-3 lead for Wales at half-time.
While there was some praise for a Wales team whose chances had been totally written off beforehand, the frustration of getting so close and falling short was palpable.
Excruciating turning point
When Dan Biggar’s third penalty put Wales 24-15 ahead in the 63rd minute, even those scarred by a thousand Welsh southern hemisphere hard-luck stories would have been starting to pace up and down.
Wales were in such a promising position – sound game-management and some rub of the green would surely get them home.
Alas, it was not to be.
It all turned sour in the 66th minute. Cheslin Kolbe gathered a cross-kick to dot down a try in the corner, full-back Damien Willemse converted but crucially, Alun Wyn Jones, who had replaced Adam Beard, was yellow-carded for being offside in the build-up to the score.
With just two points in it and so long left, there looked like there was only going to be one winner…
A 75th minute penalty try that saw prop Rhys Carre sin-binned shortly after Rees-Zammit had also been dispatched to the cooler looked to have ushered in a more predictable win before the closing drama nobody could have foreseen.
Boks bomb squad delivers - just
The so-called bomb squad were never more needed for their explosive impact on proceedings when no fewer than seven of them were introduced in the first 10 minutes of the second period.
Names like le Roux, Mbonambi, Kitshoff, Kock, Marx, Louw and Smith were all introduced – with Mbonambi and Marx making their presence felt where it mattered.
Emptying their bench like that was a sure sign of how concerned the Springboks management were at that stage, and the move looked to have done the trick.
By the 51st minute Wales’ chunky half-time lead had been cut to three points.
Having Biggar in the bin for eight of those early second half minutes didn’t help, but there was a purpose, aggression and focus about the home side that hadn’t been in evidence up to then.
It was a classic example of a great bunch of players finding themselves in a spot of bother, but not panicking just trusting their ability to come through.
Wales tick all the first half boxes
Pivac’s side’s advantage at the interval was likely the stuff of their pre-match dreams, yet there were clear reasons for it.
In short, they got all the basics right, ticking every box you have to tick in order to win international rugby matches.
They were strong and organised in defence, the much-vaunted Springbok juggernaut was largely stopped on the gain-line when it mattered, their famous physicality was more than matched.
Wales forced South Africa to turn the ball over at key moments and hustled them into mistakes, such as when Lood de Jager was forced into an error at the very first lineout by Will Rowlands, which led to Rees-Zammit’s first try.
There were some concerns at scrum, with Wales twice penalised when Dillon Lewis collapsed it and Kieran Hardy delayed a put-in, but the visitors held their own at set-piece.
Wales just looked organised and composed, completely unfazed by a packed out Loftus Versfeld.
Boks’ dreadful opening
World Champions they may be, but when you haven’t played for seven months, when almost half of your matchday squad are coming from different parts of the world to join up, there’s always going to be rustiness.
South Africa would have expected that, but not to the extent we witnessed in the first 40 minutes.
The Boks, uncharacteristically, lacked direction and made regular errors.
While they were vastly improved after half-time, before it they were nigh on unrecognisable.
De Jager and No8 Jasper Wiese were penalised in the tackle on separate occasions early on and there was a distinct lack of threat in the back-line where fly-half Elton Jantjies couldn’t dictate with any fluency.
Jantjies’ low moment was when he planted a penalty dead just after the Loftus crowd had applauded their team’s decision to go for touch rather than the posts.
Added to an earlier fluffed close range penalty that saw the Boks squander what should have been three routine points and it was fast becoming a game to forget for the No10.
Biggar’s eventful evening
The Wales captain is, and has always been, a player who gets himself noticed.
Biggar landed a glorious opportunistic drop goal from range to put his side 8-0 ahead in the seventh minute.
And when Wales repelled a Springbok assault on their line on the half-hour, Biggar was straight over applauding, patting backs and could be heard shouting “that’s the hammer!”
He was again to the fore in the verbal stakes when telling Springbok captain Siya Kolise to back off from a disagreement with Liam Williams.
But then Biggar blotted his copybook late in the first-half when he was pinged for holding onto Faf De Klerk as he pulled down the scrum-half to snuff out a South African counter-attack.
Then we had that last-gasp missed conversion and the deliberate knock-on which cost the draw in injury-time.
Ah well….
Hardy impressive
The Scarlets man got his chance to start after some impressive games off the bench in the Six Nations, and took his chance well.
Hardy’s box-kicking in the first half was top drawer, the angles were judged to perfection, and the hanging flight giving Welsh runners the chance to challenge for possession and worry the Bok catchers.
The contrast to the more celebrated Faf de Klerk’s inaccuracy in the same department could not have been starker.
Wales must now build
While there was a sense of a great opportunity missed, this was a vast improvement on the dross served up in the Six Nations defeat to Italy last spring.
It’s up to Wales to show there is some substance to the improvement now, and that it was not simply a case of a rusty Boks side yet to hit their straps.
The test for Pivac’s men now is to at the very least contend strongly and be close on the scoreboard to the world champs in the second and third Tests.
They have to avoid a trouncing, and be able to come back home ahead of next season with reasons for genuine hope.
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