Braam Van Straaten and Neil Jenkins swapped early penalty points in the match as the Welsh and South African forwards did battle early on in attempt to wear down each other’s defences.
Wales’s scrum seemed to overpower the South Africans, the might of Peter Rogers, Darren Morris and replacement Iestyn Thomas keeping the pressure on the Boks.
With a quarter of an hour played the visitors pushed for their first try of the game. As a result of a superb passage of play the Springboks fed the ball to fullback Thinus Delport, whose effort was stopped only due to Wales wing Gareth Thomas retreating back to put a cover tackle in, shoving the Bok into touch.
The home side notched the first try of the match fifteen minutes later through talisman winger Scott Gibbs. With the Welsh attack faltering, the ball found itself in the hands of Gibbs who shrugged off a high tackle from South Africa scrum half Joost Van der Westhuizen to power over the whitewash.
Thanks to Gibbs’s try, Wales took a 10-6 lead into the interval. Alas, it was not to last as Van der Westhuizen strode over the Welsh line on 58 minutes after a superb drive by his captain Andre Vos.
Wales’s Neil Jenkins was substituted soon after for Arwel Thomas. Though greeted with a cheer from the crowd, Thomas missed two drop goal attempts and a penalty attempt at the posts on the seventieth minute that may have proved crucial to the Welsh cause.
With the scores tied at 13-all with just five minutes to play, South African centre Robbie Fleck was shown a yellow card by referee Steve Walsh. Wales were gifted this advantage but the Springboks absorbed the pressure and forced a penalty on the eightieth minute in front of the uprights; Van Straaten eased the ball over to give his country a three point lead.
Two minutes later deep into injury time the Springboks punished the Dragons further as winger Breyton Paulse powered through a tired Welsh defence for his team’s second try of the match. Van Straaten’s second conversion finalised the South African victory at 23-12.
Springboks coach Harry Viljoen stated after his side’s late victory, “Wales put us under a lot of pressure and there were times when I was quite worried.”
Wales Coach Graham Henry commented, “We lacked composure in attack. We had opportunities to score points and we didn’t take them. We could have put them away.”
