ANSCOMBE HAS A MOMENT TO RELISH AFTER HIS INJURY HELL
WALES made history with a first ever win on South African soil, but what were the personal ups and downs of a memorable day in Bloemfontein?
As ever, there were winners and losers for a variety of reasons as a 1312 victory for the visitors went into the record books.
WINNERS
The New Zealand-born fly-half has gone on record as saying he once feared he would never play again after some prolonged injury hell in recent years.
He’s missed some big occasions for Wales since moving hemispheres, not least the 2019 World Cup when he was nursing a serious knee injury.
But he will now forever be able to say he was part of the first Wales team to win a Test in South Africa – and that he was the hero of the hour as well!
His impact as a 53rd-minute substitute for the injured Dan Biggar was quite something.
And his nerveless conversion from the touchline to win it will replay in his dreams – and those of a fair few of his team-mates no doubt – for years to come.
WAYNE PIVAC
When a coach achieves a win as significant as this, you can always see the jubilation and relief etched in their faces during post-match interviews, however hard they try to be nonchalant.
It was the same in Bloemfontein. Pivac came to South Africa under pressure for his job, with some suggesting the Welsh Rugby Union may opt to cut their losses if Wales went down badly in all three Tests.
That will no longer be the conversation when he returns.
Whether Wales win the series next week of or not – and the Boks are still favourites – Pivac will fly home with his own place in history secure, and justifiably able to argue that he has turned everything around from the gloom-laden fallout which followed the Six Nations defeat to Italy.
The smile is back on the face of Welsh rugby, however long it lasts. Pivac has earned himself acres of breathing space on tour.
ALUN WYN JONES
Yes he was yellow-carded, but there was more than a smidgen of justice that he ended up on the winning side in spite of it.
Jones was incredulous to get 10 minutes in the cooler for allegedly playing the ball on the floor cynically and spoiling a Bok attack in the 57th minute.
Many a player has played the innocent, and while initial TV replays were unclear, it now appears it was a green sock which played the ball, not Jones’ hand.
Who knows how long Wales’ veteran record cap holder has left on this stage, but he’s been trying a long time to beat South Africa in their own back yard. And at last he’s achieved it.
In the Sky Sports studio afterwards were his former team-mates Adam Jones and Sam Warburton.
They were both overjoyed about the result but likely rued the fact they never managed the feat before hanging up their boots.
Jones’ decision to continue after the Six Nations was legitimately questioned in some quarters, but just to be part of this was worth it.
THE WORLD GAME
It sounds trite to claim rugby as the winner when Wales claim victories of this stature. But there’s no question this was good for the game.
Welsh defeats on southern hemisphere soil have become achingly predictable in the professional era. One swallow and all that.
But there’s the hint of a turning point now.
And just that one victory can so often be liberating psychologically in future clashes.
Could one bring a few more in the coming years? Nobody should get ahead of themselves, but the fact Wales’ win came on the same day England and Ireland beat Australia and New Zealand respectively is worthy of some reflection.
What odds would you have got on that particular treble on Friday night? It suggests an evening up of the perennially lop-sided world order.
And it’s brilliant Wales are very much a part of that.
LOSERS THE SOUTH AFRICAN MANAGEMENT
Not exactly the most surprising choice as the group that oversaw their team’s first ever defeat to Wales on home soil.
But there are more cogent reasons for mentioning them.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing and all that, but Jacques Nienaber’s decision to make 19 changes to his first Test squad of 23 was always a monumental gamble, for all that those he called in were more than capable of winning.
He almost got away with it, but ultimately it backfired. Rotation is one thing, rotation on such an enormous scale quite another.
Even if the team he sent out still looked fairly formidable on paper, there was a risk of them being unfamiliar with each other. Make up your own mind about the extent of that, but Wales were the grateful recipients.
A word also for assistant coach Mzwandile Stick also, who was at the forefront of the – stick – directed at critics of his colleague’s second Test roster.
He told them to stick it, saying: “These are proper players that have earned their stripes and deserve their opportunity.
“If they want to say it’s a B team, then they must come and speak to us after the game and the result will speak.”
Pardon, Mr Stick?
HANDRE POLLARD
The Leicester-bound fly-half is a player of immense calibre who has so often steered the Boks to places they want to be on a rugby field.
He was made captain for this clash, and what a sour note to complete such an honourable and memorable occasion.
To rub in the misery he finished the match lame after jarring his leg, but a place in history as the captain who presided over the first home defeat to Wales was not what he envisaged on Saturday morning.
Without wishing to pile on the agony, Pollard will also have sleepless nights about the 55th-minute penalty he missed, one which ended up costing his team victory.
Normally such a metronome, Pollard lined up a straightforward chance, only to watch as the ball spooned left off his shin and well wide of the target.
In golfing parlance it was a duckhook, just as Wales started to find some rhythm.
EBEN ETZEBETH
A World Cup winner and for some years a colossus of the Springbok second row.
Etzebeth was the one front-liner retained for the second Test, but might privately wish he hadn’t been because he now has a very unwanted blemish on his record.
What makes it worse is that it was far from an Etzebeth-like performance.
He conceded two penalties late in the game which helped preserve Welsh momentum as the Springboks became jittery.
Etzebeth’s career has largely been one of adulation and praise, and deservedly so.
But this was a particularly dark day for him.