Springboks rookies shine to nil Wales as Rassie Erasmus flexes depth in seven-try Durban victory
Springboks centre Jesse Kriel celebrates a try against Wales.
South Africa made it three victories out of three in the Nations Championship as they comfortably brushed aside Wales 43-0 at Kings Park Stadium in Durban.
The bonus-point win – a third successive maximum haul this month – leaves the Springboks atop the Southern Hemisphere standings, with New Zealand in second place.
South Africa’s seven tries on the day were claimed by Jasper Wiese, Cobus Reinach, Jesse Kriel, Jaco Williams, Herschel Jantjies, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Paul de Villiers.
Wales, who suffered a blow ahead of kick-off when wing Josh Adams withdrew with a calf issue, have now gone 160 minutes without scoring a point against the Springboks.
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Indeed, Wales were blown away 73-0 by the Springboks in Cardiff late last year and after the first 14 minutes it looked like a similar scoreline may be on the cards in Durban.
It took the Boks just five minutes to open their account when Jasper Wiese hit a smart line in between Jac Morgan and Rhys Carre, bursting through for the opener. That try was converted by Vusi Moyo in what was an assured opening from the debutant, with the senior players around him giving the 20-year-old an armchair ride at Kings Park.
Cobus Wiese almost followed his brother in crossing the whitewash on 12 minutes before being felled, but it didn’t take long for South Africa to double their advantage. Two minutes later, a dominant scrum on the Welsh line handed the Boks a put-in and from the resulting set-piece Reinach raced over for a converted score that made it 14-0.
At this point it looked ominous, but credit must go to the Welsh for how they plugged the holes and ultimately frustrated the hosts to make it a scoreless next 26 minutes.
Granted they were dominant at scrum time but South Africa struggled to find the same fluency in attack and their next score only arrived in the final play of the half when Moyo put boot to ball towards young Williams out wide who did enough to disrupt Tomas Williams and Kriel duly gathered and cantered over for an unconverted score.
Steve Tandy looked to shuffle his deck at the break as Nicky Smith, Ryan Elias, James Botham and Joe Hawkins all emerged for the second 40, but it was a nightmare start for Wales. Barely one minute into the resumption, a poor kick led to the ball finding its way to Williams, who raced in for a try on his debut, making it 26-0 with the extras.
Wales, though, to their credit, dug in and produced another lengthy period of resilience in Durban. But that was finally ended by the Boks on 63 minutes when the impressive Williams turned provider for Jantjies, who celebrated his return to international rugby with a score. Manie Libbok could not add the extras, but the lead moved to 31.
It promised to be a tough final 15 minutes for the Welsh too when replacement prop Ben Warren was yellow-carded for making contact with the head of Marco van Staden.
And so it proved as Libbok found Arendse unmarked on the left wing for a score that made it 36-0 before De Villiers added the gloss with his first try in the closing minutes.
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The teams
South Africa: 15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Jaco Williams, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Vusi Moyo, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit (c), 6 Paul de Villiers, 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 Cobus Wiese, 3 Carlu Sadie, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Gerhard Steenekamp
Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 Ben-Jason Dixon, 20 Marco van Staden, 21 Herschel Jantjies, 22 Manie Libbok, 23 Damian Willemse
Wales: 15 Blair Murray, 14 Louis Rees-Zammit, 13 Max Llewellyn, 12 Ben Thomas, 11 Ellis Mee, 10 Dan Edwards, 9 Tomos Williams, 8 Aaron Wainwright, 7 Jac Morgan, 6 Alex Mann, 5 Adam Beard, 4 Teddy Williams, 3 Dillon Lewis, 2 Dewi Lake (c), 1 Rhys Carre
Replacements: 16 Ryan Elias, 17 Nicky Smith, 18 Ben Warren, 19 Freddie Thomas, 20 Tommy Reffell, 21 James Botham, 22 Reuben Morgan-Williams, 23 Joe Hawkins
Referee: Andrew Brace (IRFU)
Assistant Referees: Pierre Brousset (FFR) and James Doleman (NZR)
TMO: Olly Hodges (IRFU)
FPRO: Richard Kelly (NZR)
Broadcasters: ITV (United Kingdom), TF1 (France), Virgin Media Television (Republic of Ireland), Sky Italia (Italy), Wowow (Japan), Sky Sport (New Zealand), Nine Network / Stan Sport (Australia), SuperSport (South Africa)
READ MORE: Springboks 43-0 Wales: Check out the stats, facts and more from the Nations Championship clash