Wales vs. South Africa: Winners and Losers from Millennium Stadium
Six years of hurt were finally brought to an end in Cardiff as Wales recorded a long-overdue win over one of the big three Southern Hemisphere nations.
This 12-6 win, per Wales Online, was an absorbing, try-less encounter that featured brutal defence from both teams.
The unerring boot of Leigh Halfpenny was responsible for Wales’ points, but there were heroes in red all over the field as coach Warren Gatland finally got this monkey off his back.
Here are the winners and losers from a red-letter day at the Millennium Stadium. Tackle stats come courtesy of ESPNScrum.com
Winner: Gethin Jenkins
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Jenkins allied his vast experience with the work rate of a hungry young pup.
There were long periods of this match in which it seemed if a Springbok player was on the attack, Jenkins had made it his own personal mission to be the man to stop him.
The Lions loose-head made 14 tackles, an eye–watering number for a prop.
In the late stages he was also part of a Welsh scrum that turned the screw on the Springbok pack.
Winner: Wales’ Flankers
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Sam Warburton and Dan Lydiate made 16 and 15 tackles, respectively. They repeatedly hurled themselves in the way of South African attackers.
Warburton was magnificent all afternoon and the pair outshone their opposite numbers in every department.
Wales knew they would have to take it to the trenches to beat this Springbok team, and their back row forwards did just that, forcing penalty turnovers and never yielding an inch to the big runners coming at them.
Winner: Warren Gatland
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Warren Gatland did something Wales or any other nation never do these days: he had his gun team on the field and left them there.
Only a Leigh Halfpenny head knock and a 74th-minute withdrawal for the 34-year-old Gethin Jenkins gave the touchline match official cause to liaise with the Welsh bench.
As a result, Wales never dropped intensity, never ran the risk of a cold player making a glaring error.
And it showed even the big forwards are fit enough to go the distance.
A case in point was the mess the Welsh scrum made of the Bok pack just after they had brought on a replacement loose-head.
It wasn’t brave of Gatland, it was clever.
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Winner: Dan Biggar
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Biggar was given the Man of the Match award, and deservedly so. He guided Wales around the park well, demonstrating maturity in his game management.
But he also threw his body on the line as part of the Welsh rearguard.
The No. 10 made 11 tackles, most of them against men twice his size.
Loser: Willie Le Roux
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The twinkle-toed full-back didn’t get much chance to dazzle with his footwork in a tourniquet-tight battle, but he made two horrible handling errors when he really wasn’t under too much pressure.
He dropped the ball on his own line when he had time and space to field a Welsh kick, then he knocked on again to end the game.
It can be surmised that, with his team needing something special to pull this one out of the fire, Le Roux was probably thinking of the next step without making sure he had the ball safely in his grasp.
Lesson learned.
Loser: Jean De Villiers
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A sad and painful way for de Villiers to leave the field was not what anyone who loves sport wanted to see happen this weekend.
The Springbok captain was cleared out of a ruck mid-way through the second half and his knee folded underneath him as he hit the deck.
His leadership was lacking as the Boks tried to find a way back into the game.
They, and the rest of the rugby world, will be wishing a fine player a full and fast recovery.
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