A young Wales side with Neil Jenkins as its talisman took to the field fired up to get stuck into the Springboks who and been welcomed back into the international fold. 55,000 packed into the National Stadium, Cardiff Arms Park as Wales, the Five Nations Champions, took on a big pack with even bigger backs like Joost Van der Westhuizen.
Within seconds of the kick off Wales made a thumping tackle and with it a statement; they were ready to take the Springboks on at their own physical game. Early into match, with Wales camped on the South African line Emyr Lewis pounced on a returning high ball and scuffled his way to set up a ruck near the try line. He was judged to have dived in and South Africa survived the first onslaught.
Rudolf Straeli opened the scoring against the run of play after a mesmerising jinking run through Wales’s back line which took out four players in the process. His unconverted try gave South Africa a 5-0 lead.
The Welsh forwards responded with a phenomenal physical effort of their own after the restart with John Davies leading a charge into the South African half which culminated in Garin Jenkins setting up a ruck and South Africa being penalised for offside interference near their own twenty-two. Neil jenkins duly accepted the opportunity for points and put Wales on the board with three from the boot.
South Africa began to get into their stride and played an expansive passing game along Wales’s try line which culminated in a second try. Fullback Andre Joubert received one of a long line of passes on the right hand side, flick passed it on to Pieter Hendriks who passed it out wide and back to the looping Joubert for a score in the corner. The flick pass so was so quick that it wrong-footed Rupert Moon who had banked on Hendriks being the main threat to the line.
Jenkins pulled another three points back after South African indiscipline to put Wales wthin four points at 6-10 which started a Wales purple-patch that would stretch out the middle period of the game.
Gareth Llewellyn knocked-on on the South African line and receiving the ball from Wales winning the subsequent scrum, Rupert Moon peeled away but was denied a score in the corner as hit just hit the flag. A second scrum loomed shortly after from which South Africa managed to dissolve the threat by pushing Welsh play backward and clearing their lines. South African indiscipline resulted in another penalty which Jenkins missed on this occasion, but nonetheless, Wales were keeping the pressure up and having a field day in the opposition’s half.
Another Garin Jenkins ruck, and another penalty for diving in by South Africa gave Neil Jenkins the opportunity to make amends for his miss and Wales drew closer to 9-10. South Africa then collapsed a maul and Jenkins got into his stride with his kicking game. For the first time in the match Wales went ahead, 12-10, sadly, they would not edge any further.
South Africa mounted a second half fightback which saw Hennie Le Roux put South Africa back in front 12-13 after an offside from Wales this time round. Then, just as Wales thought they had the Springboks contained a move of brilliance from their opponents saw Wales cut to ribbons once again. Van der Westhuizen left Emyr Lewis for dead and passed to Le Roux who ran down the narrow channel towards touch. Wayne Proctor reached Le Roux but not before he had offloaded to Chester Williams whose try ultimately wrapped up the points for South Africa once Le Roux had added the conversion.
