Wales on cloud nine as the Boks lose their grip
Wales 20 Sth Africa 11
ELLIS JENKINS woke up yesterday morning thinking he would be warming the bench as Wales went in search of their first autumn clean-sweep.
He was carried from the field last night a newly-minted Welsh hero as Warren Gatland’s men won a ninth Test in a row for the first time in 19 years.
Jenkins was the totem of a Welsh performance that featured a blitzkrieg two-try start and then fiercely-committed defence that secured a fourth-consecutive win over the Springboks.
It was desperately sad that he was injured in the final ruck of the match, and left on a stretcher. It should have been a shield.
“The effort put into it is the habit, we’re very pleased with all the Ws, there are patches we have to work on but the character is the most pleasing thing,” said Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones.
Losing a player of the calibre of Lions flanker Dan Lydiate, to an elbow injury suffered in training, would normally be seen as a blow, but in his replacement Jenkins, Wales had a more attacking look to their back row and after 10 minutes the loss was forgotten.
Jones passed out of the tackle 10 metres from the Springbok line and Jenkins dazzled Malcolm Marx with a show and go, drove for the posts and gave the scoring pass to Tomas Francis.
Six minutes later it was two, Liam Williams starting it with a chip over the midfield on halfway, and after Gareth Anscombe loaded the right-hand side at a scrum eight metres out to draw the defence, Williams finished it by taking the fly-half’s long pass and cutting in from the touchline.
Handre Pollard banged over a penalty from 48 metres to get the Springboks on the board, but the Welsh tactic of direct running and quick offloads was both daring and delivering.
After South Africa captain Siya Kilisi bizarrely called for a scrum rather than an easy three points, Jenkins combined with Justin Tipuric to poach the vital turnover that retained Wales’ 11-point lead through half-time.
Jesse Kriel’s try and an Elton Jantjies penalty brought the Boks to within three points, so Gatland sent on Dan Biggar to close the game out. It was his clever chip ahead with South Africa waiting for the referee’s whistle for a knock-on which forced Aphiwe Dyantyi to concede a penalty which Biggar duly converted. The Boks’ stranglehold was broken.
Biggar kicked another three, then boxed them into a corner from which they could not escape.