The Springbok universe of 2025 is a charmed one. They have talent, power, speed and strength. And they have depth. Like a swamp creature in a B-Grade movie, when they get their teeth into you, they rip you to shreds.
Everything they touch turns to gold and, when a move isn’t quite as slick as it should be, they still get away with it because their confidence is sky high. It’s a confidence that allowed them to score 12 tries to beat Wales 73-0 in Cardiff on Saturday, while the Welsh didn’t come remotely close to scoring a try themselves.
They must be an absolute nightmare to play against, particularly for a Welsh side low on self-belief. There was a time – in the 1970s – when the roles were reversed.
Way back when, the Welsh had players like Phil Bennett, Mervyn Davies and Gareth Edwards in their midst. How they would love to call upon such talents now but, alas, the cupboard is as bare as a Welsh hillside in winter.
After leading 28-0 at half-time, the Boks took less than five minutes to find their way to the scoreboard – a route that had been well-established through four first-half tries.
Wilco Louw crashed over from close for the visitors’ fifth to be followed by a quick-thinking Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu under the posts after a quick tap for the sixth. The seventh came from Canaan Moodie. He hacked on at a time when the Welsh were gaining some rare rhythm. He hared after his kick and dotted down for South Africa’s seventh try.
Shortly afterwards, South Africa brought on their entire bench, scrumhalf Cobus Reinach replacing Morné van den Berg for this 50th cap.
The final whistle looked a long way away for the hosts here, with almost half an hour of the Test left. Aaron Wainwright had temporarily gone off for an eye injury (he was yellow-carded moments later) and the Boks duly took advantage. André Esterhuizen, who made a horrible nuisance of himself all afternoon, scoring the visitors eighth over in the far corner. Feinberg-Mngomezulu popped up for his second, and the ‘Boks ninth, after good work by the immense Esterhuizen, the predominantly Welsh crowd now reduced to jeering. And silence.
The nightmare wasn’t over for the Welsh. Marco van Staaden drove Ruan Nortje over for South Africa’s 11th try. Not to be outdone, Eben Etzebeth, one of a raft of second-half substitutes scored the Springboks’ 12th. By now you wanted the horror show to end to spare the Welsh further humiliation, although Etzebeth gave locals something to think about by sticking his thumb in Alex Mann’s eye. It took some of the gloss off a commanding display.
It took only eight minutes for the Boks, wearing white, to open the scoring. They probed upfield, running flat lines, steadily gaining ground. When close to the line, Gerhard Steenekamp, the Bulls loosehead, sniffed the whitewash and duly rumbled over.
Worse was to follow for the home side. A ‘Bok scrum penalty within range was shifted to their right. A subtle delayed pass from Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu found Damian Willemse, who, with a cheeky pass of his own, flipped outside to Ethan Hooker.
The Sharks winger might have been in an old-fashioned Hollywood musical. He brushed defenders aside as he sashayed across the turf to score the ‘Boks’ second. Both tries were converted by Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
On the half-hour, a penalty advantage to the Springboks on the Welsh line. Morné van den Berg fed the scrum, the shove arrived like room service at a swanky hotel, and the ‘Boks walked it over, Jasper Wiese poking out a quick left hand to dot down for the Springboks’ third try.
Van den Berg, the Lions scrum-half was on the money on the stroke of half-time, this after a scything run from Canaan Moodie and good, tank-like work from Esterhuizen in the second iteration of the move. This Springboks’ fourth of the half, it was nothing less than they deserved as they went into the shed 28 points to the good.
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