WALES FANS WARMED UP BY WIN OVER BOKS
T ENS of thousands of fans braved the cold as Wales ended their autumn campaign with a 27-13 win against South Africa.
Wales brushed past the opposition thanks to the metronomic kicking of the talismanic Leigh Halfpenny and tries from Ken Owens and Justin Tipuric.
Despite much criticism of coach Rob Howley, Wales ended the autumn internationals with a record of three games out of four for the first time in 14 years.
But after a near full house against Japan last Saturday, there were again empty spaces and the reappearance of the giant Wales flag covering the empty seats in the north stand yesterday as a crowd of 55,271 turned up to watch Howley’s men tackle the Springboks.
The victory, on a bitterly cold day in Cardiff, would have warmed the cockles of any Wales rugby fan, and despite the weather the capital city’s streets were packed before kick-off, with spirited fans turning out in their thousands.
Dotted amid the red Welsh wave was also plenty of support for South Africa, with their fans a colourful presence around the Principality Stadium.
Among them was Craig Wilkinson, from Bridgend, a South Africa expat who has been living in Wales for 20 years. He attended the match with his wife Emma and sons Joseph and Joshua. They were all decked out in South Africa shirts and Springbok hats.
He would have left the stadium disappointed after predicting a close match and South Africa winning by nine points.
If Wales were on the right track in the stadium, for those fans wanting to get home by train after the game there was a different queuing system in place.
With more than 50,000 tickets sold for the match at the Principality Sta- dium, Cardiff hosted its fourth international match on consecutive weekends for the autumn series.
But this time, those fans wanting to use the local and Valleys routes had to leave from Cardiff’s Queen Street station instead of Cardiff Central.
Previous matches had seen all fans use the queuing system at Cardiff Central station and this remained the case for those going to West Wales, Newport, London and Bristol yesterday; all fans being advised to buy a return ticket to avoid queuing up for a ticket after the match.