Another week, another record defeat. This time Wales went down 45-12 to South Africa, which is the worst beating they’ve ever had from them in a home game. It’s their 12th straight defeat, at the fag end of a year in which they’ve lost every single game they have played.
The worst thing about this one was that they played pretty well, in a way. It was a performance full of grit and determination anyway, but that only leaves you with the uncomfortable truth that this thumping defeat was about as good as it was ever going to get for this team. They simply don’t seem to have anything better in them.
First, some good news. They scored twice, and the crowd came out. Oh, and the opening five minutes went OK. Shame about the five after it though, which pretty much ended the contest because South Africa went 12-0 up. Their tries came from an unlikely couple of flying finishes by their two towering lock forwards, Franco Mostert and Eben Etzebeth, who were following up breaks made by the wings, Cheslin Kolbe and Kurt-Lee Arendse.
Kolbe went down the right, and Mostert cut a cute line through the defence. Then Arendse went down the left after he had ripped the ball off Sam Costelow and made a last pass to Etzebeth, who ran it in after tracking him for 40 metres or so in support.
To emphasise the point, South Africa played the next 10 minutes inside the Wales 22, a little like they were working attacking scenarios in a training game. Jac Morgan managed to hold up Siya Kolisi to stop him scoring a third, but it arrived soon enough when South Africa worked the ball across the field to Arendse off the back of an attacking lineout.
Arendse nearly made their fourth, too, when he leaped to gather a cross-field kick and batted the ball back for Aphelele Fassi. This time it was Blair Murray who managed to get his hands under the ball to prevent the try.
Kolisi had another try struck off when the television match official spotted that Jaden Hendrikse had knocked the ball on in the buildup. It made little difference. Elrigh Louw bashed his way over from the back of the ensuing scrum.
By now the Wales fans were cheering tackles as if they were tries. After 40 minutes, they finally got something to celebrate when Wales made it into the South Africa 22 for the first time. They threw 13 men into the maul and tried to bully their way over the line, once, twice, three times, before they finally decided to throw it wide to Rio Dyer, who scored in the corner.
That was about as good as it got. The second half coasted along towards its inevitable conclusion. South Africa blew a couple of chances with some sloppy handling. They were stuck in second gear. But Fassi finally scored after another startling break by Arendse, and Gerhard Steenekamp finished off a series of pick-and-go charges. Wales blew one good opportunity when they bungled a lineout in South Africa’s 22, and another when they were penalised at a hard-won scrum. They finally scored a second when James Botham managed to squirm over from the last play of the game.
Things started going wrong for Wales before the game even started. They had to make two last-minute changes to their lineup after the prop Gareth Thomas came down sick and the wing Tom Rogers injured his calf. Along with Will Rowlands, Thomas, who has 35 caps, was the most experienced man in the squad, and Rogers had been just about the only player to come out of last week’s debacle against Australia in any real credit. Nicky Smith and Josh Hathaway were brought in to cover for the two of them, and Kemsley Mathias and Owen Watkin took the spare places the changes left among the replacements.
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Even the programme made sobering reading. “We cannot question the players’ commitment,” wrote the WRUs president, Terry Cobner, in his welcome notes. “At this moment in time we are just not good enough.” Cobner’s prescription was to “keep working hard as we can till we turn this corner”.
The WRU say they will hold the usual end-of-series review, although, given just how bad the results have been, this time they’re going to bring in a couple of independent experts from within the sport to help them with it. The plan is they will report before Christmas, which would give them just over a month to get ready for their next fixture, away to France at the start of the Six Nations. Gatland is adamant he wants to continue. At the same time, the hope is that a deal will be done with the four regional teams, too, which would allow the WRU to increase their funding and take on a little more control over them in return.
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