Welsh make it a perfect Autumn
Wales 20 Sth Africa 11 England 37 Australia
ELLIS JENKINS woke up yesterday thinking he would be warming the bench as Wales went in search of their first Autumn clean sweep.
But he was carried from the field a 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 performance that featured a blitzkrieg two-try start and then fiercely committed defence to secure a fourth consecutive win over the Springboks.
It was desperately sad he was injured in the final ruck of the match and left on a stretcher.
Losing flanker Dan Lydiate to an elbow injury would normally be a blow, but Jenkins gave Wales a more attacking look to their back row, and after 10 minutes the loss was forgotten.
Alun Wyn Jones (above) passed out of the tackle 10 metres from the 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.
After Gareth Anscombe loaded the right-hand side at a scrum eight metres out to draw the defence, Williams took the fly-half’s long pass and cut in from the touchline.
Handre Pollard banged over a penalty in the 56th minute, after a series of lineouts, Jesse Kriel had enough space to squeeze over in the left corner. Elton Jantjies’ penalty brought the Boks to within three points, so Gatland sent on Dan Biggar to close the game out and it was his clever chip, with South Africa waiting for the referee’s whistle for a knock-on, which forced Aphiwe Dyantyi to concede a penalty Biggar converted.
Biggar kicked another three points, then boxed the Boks into a corner from which they could not escape.
Wyn Jones said: “We can’t deny there’s a bit of depth developing.
“Credit to the whole squad that have supported each other through the four Tests.”
18