BOKS SHOCKED BY NEW WELSH HERO JENKINS
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 two-try start and fiercely committed defence to beat the Springboks for a fourth successive game.
It was desperately sad that he was injured in the final ruck and left on a stretcher. It should have been a shield.
Captain Alun Wyn Jones said: “There are patches we have to work on but the character is the most pleasing thing.
“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.”
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 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. Gareth Anscombe loaded the right side at a scrum eight metres out and Liam Williams took the fly-half ’s long pass to
Wales 20 South Africa 11
score. Handre Pollard banged over a penalty from 48 metres to get the Springboks on the board but the daring Welsh tactic of direct running and quick offloads was delivering.
The pack gobbled up the ground, with
Jones and Adam Beard prominent.
And when attack became defence, Jenkins proved no slouch. He got an arm under the ball when Jesse
Kriel broke the Welsh line, then combined with Justin Tipuric for a vital turnover that retained Wales’ 11-point lead until half-time.
There was plenty more of the same as South Africa battered the Welsh line in a brutal start to the second half and the defence was broken in the 56th minute.
Kriel had just enough space to squeeze over in the left corner after a series of lineouts.
An Elton Jantjies penalty brought the Boks to within three points, so Gatland sent on Dan Biggar to close the game out.
It was Biggar’s clever chip ahead, with South Africa waiting for the whistle for a knock-on, which forced Aphiwe Dyantyi to concede a penalty which he duly converted.
Biggar kicked another three-pointer, then boxed the Boks into a corner from which they could not escape.