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Wales end the agony as Dan Biggar orchestrates defeat of South Africa Wales end the agony as Dan Biggar orchestrates defeat of South Africa
(about 1 hour later)
Leigh Halfpenny kicked four penalties as Wales beat South Africa for the first time since 1999 after an attritional battle against South Africa. Yet again in Cardiff it was all about the last few minutes. Before that there were no tries to report, no moments of extended sparkle, nothing but the ferocity that is so run-of-the-mill now that it is scarcely worthy of mention. Only the last few minutes counted and for the first time Wales came through them unscathed. Even in victory over Fiji they had struggled at the end. Against Australia and New Zealand they had seen the lead and the result ripped from their grasp. Here, at last, they held out.
The Toulon full-back missed just one shot at goal, ensuring that Wales ended a dismal run of 22 successive defeats against the Springboks, New Zealand and Australia. It was a game without a try. And it was a game without invention. It contained a quite horrible injury to Jean de Villiers, who dislocated his knee in an incident that became the curtain-raiser to the melodrama of the all-important closing chapter. The centre was taken away on a cart with 13 minutes to go, his exit becoming the start of the end.
Pat Lambie booted two penalties for South Africa, but Wales were deserved winners following a display built on the set piece power of their pack. The Welsh fly-half Dan Biggar was named man of the match and was superb in maintaining the concentration of all the players around him. South Africa exhausted their bench – and not just because of injury. All eight replacements were used, whereas Wales seemed intent on leaving the starting XV on for the whole match. In the end they had to put Scott Williams on for Leigh Halfpenny and Aaron Jarvis on for Gethin Jenkins. Both replacements would have a role to play.
Before the start of the game, Wales paid a touching tribute to the Australian cricketer Phillip Hughes, who died earlier this week, by leaving a lone cricket bat outside their dressing room as they prepared to enter the arena, before a minute’s silence was observed in memory of Hughes and Ireland’s 1948 Grand Slam star Jack Kyle. On this occasion when tension overwhelmed skill, it was all about mistakes. Wales had tried a few little tricks – they packed 13 players into two line-outs in the first half – but nothing had really worked. This was already much more about surviving huge tackles and making the odd inch through the stonewall defences.
Halfpenny and South Africa fly-half Pat Lambie exchanged penalties during the opening 10 minutes, but a second Halfpenny attempt then struck the post, frustrating the home side as they hoped to make their early territorial dominance count. Dan Biggar is a player who has as much wit as brawn, but on this day his devotion to putting his shoulder to the wheel was more telling than anything dainty. He and prop Jenkins hurled themselves into tackles, the two most visible proponents of the art of stopping runners in their tracks. At half-time the score was 3-3, as it had been against New Zealand.
There were few clear-cut attacking opportunities early on, with both sides relying heavily on their respective kicking games, but South Africa lock Eben Etzebeth was fortunate to escape a yellow card following a high challenge on Biggar. In the second half, nothing changed other than a slight shift on the scoreboard. Halfpenny added a second, then a third penalty, against one by Pat Lambie. Then came the penalty that made the gap six points. The quest was on to put one more score on the board that would mean the visitors would have to score twice. Wales tried to work Biggar into drop-goal position.
Wales continued to press, with Williams chasing a well-placed kick into space, and South Africa’s defensive structure started to be tested approaching the end of an opening quarter that saw the Springboks under comfortably more pressure than their hosts. By then Francois Hougaard had already made one of those little errors that might have had a say in the outcome, kicking the ball out on the full from a tap-and-go penalty. By now South Africa were down to 14 players, Cornal Hendricks having been perhaps cruelly sent to the sin-bin for clattering into Halfpenny in the air. It was a misfortune, not a crime. This insistence on a non-contact contest for the kicked ball is proving to be a problem area.
South Africa suffered a major injury blow when their captain Jean de Villiers was carried off after suffering what appeared to be a serious leg injury. Still, it all added to the occasion. And now came the Biggar drop-goal attempt. It turned out to be not the most soaring kick of his career, a fluff that barely made it halfway to the posts. It was bouncing towards Willie le Roux, the very last person Wales wanted to see with the ball, even if the full-back was 95 metres from the Wales goal-line. Le Roux is one of the most dangerous open-play runners in the world, but he knocked the ball on.
Wales, in an attempt to convert pressure into points, twice opted for 13-man lineouts, with only Baldwin and scrum-half Rhys Webb not involved as they camped close to South Africa’s line. It was the first sign that Wales might manage their way through the end-game that haunts them. They prepared for one last assault on the line, the drive that would result in the game-finishing try. They made a mess of it, surrendering possession as the scrum turned through 90 degrees. They won the ball back through a turnover by the outstanding Taulupe Faletau, who was immediately penalised for playing the ball off his feet at almost the very next breakdown.
But such clever thinking outside of the box did not reap a reward, and South Africa moved upfield to create a sustained spell of pressure, forcing Wales into defensive mode. South Africa kicked for the corner, only to miss it. Scott Williams could have watched the ball go out in-goal. Instead he tried to keep it in play, only for it to bounce over the dead-ball line. Result: five-metre scrum with South Africa to feed. Any notion of Wales being in control of this last session had vanished. This was almost completely out of control.
South Africa enjoyed dominance during the dying minutes of the first half, but they could find no way through either. It was 3-3 at half-time. Suddenly, the Springbok scrum was going the same way. Faletau emerged with the ball from that set piece and Wales were hoofing their way downfield into an area of relative safety. Le Roux covered across, still a dangerous player in the perilous last moments. He knocked-on again. This game may not feature in Willie’s show-reel.
Both sides came out with plenty of intent as the second-half swung into action, but it was Wales who regained the lead through Halfpenny’s second successful penalty after South Africa were punished for not releasing possession. Even with mere nano-seconds to go Wales somehow surrendered possession and South Africa had one more chance. The ball went forward, a typically tatty end to a very scrappy but utterly absorbing encounter.
Irish referee John Lacey kept a vice-like grip on the contest, and there was no leeway for either team, and the Springboks quickly drew level through another Lambie strike, this time from 50 metres to make Wales’ lead a short-lived business. Sometimes the impact of a game on the mindset is more important than its quotation in the coaching manual of how brilliantly the game can be played. This was not one for the poets, but what a place it will have in the hearts of the Welsh squad. A win at last against a southern hemisphere giant, a first since victory over Australia in the early days of the age of Warren.
Defences continued to dominate and South Africa conceded another penalty after they tried to run possession from deep inside their 22. November had been a complete stinker of a month. Now it has the sweet aroma of a bonfire still aglow. There is light and there is heat in the Welsh game.
Such adventure backfired when tighthead prop Coenie Oosthuizen infringed, and Halfpenny completed his penalty hat-trick.
That was the cue for Springboks head coach Heyneke Meyer to make a double substitution, sending on prop Trevor Nyakane instead of Tendai Mtawarira and replacing flanker Teboho Mohoje with Nizaam Carr.
As the third quarter neared its conclusion, South Africa were still encountering problems breaching Wales’ defence, and then a mighty Welsh scrum had the Springboks in all sorts of trouble and Halfpenny’s fourth successful penalty made it 12-6.
South Africa suffered a major injury blow when their captain Jean de Villiers was carried off after suffering what appeared to be a serious leg injury.
A lengthy stoppage ensued while De Villiers was treated, and he was replaced by Damian de Allende as South Africa looked to regroup going into the final 15 minutes.
But their cause was not helped when wing Cornal Hendricks was ruled to have challenged Halfpenny dangerously in their air and referee Lacey brandished a yellow card, reducing the Springboks to 14 men with 18 minutes left.
Halfpenny then departed the action, with Scott Williams replacing him, but Wales continued to enjoy the upper hand in terms of territory and they did enough to wind down the clock before starting to celebrate an outstanding win.
Dan Biggar said: “It’s everything. It’s been amazing. All the narrow defeats and everything, and this is what makes it worth it.
“The crowd were awesome, the atmosphere is amazing, and it really helped us in the last couple of minutes.
“We always seem to do it the hard way but the main thing is we crossed the line today and that’s huge.”
He had some doubt Wales could finish the job. We’ve thrown things away so many times in the past,” Biggar said. “This is a real moment for us moving forward and hopefully there’s more to come. Everyone was superb. It was a great team effort and it’s just great relief.”
Eddie Butler’s match report to follow