Wales 13 South Africa 23

Date:  26 Nov 2000
Venue:  Cardiff-Millennium Stadium
Attendance:  Not Recorded
Referee:  Walsh s.jnr

At a packed Millennium Stadium, Cardiff on Sunday afternoon, South Africa scored 10 points in injury time to not only keep new Springbok coach Harry Viljoen's hundred per cent Test record, but extract revenge for last year's shock loss to Wales in Cardiff with a 23-13 victory.

In a desperately tight match, that perfect Viljoen record looked in constant threat as his side battled to come to grips with the wet conditions and an uncompromisingly physical Welsh side.

Viljoen's request for the stadium roof to be shut fell on deaf ears, and the rain-soaked Cardiff pitch was more reminiscent of the classic 1970s bogs of the old Cardiff Arms Park, resulting in a stifled game for the expansive Boks, and a plethera of handling errors.

That South Africa won by ten points seems a travesty given the relentless probing and commitment of the Welsh, who went in at the break deservedly 10-6 in the lead, and tied at 13 - 13 with less than five minutes to go.

The Springbok rally came despite being a man down after Robbie Fleck was eventually sin-binned for his constant and needless illegal challenges.

In that period, Breyton Paulse, who had barely seen the ball the entire game, finally sniped through the defence and ultimately set up a penalty that Braam van Straaten converted from point blank range.

Three minutes later he sealed the win when he sliced the Welsh defence in two with one of his characteristically jinxing runs.

All this excitement though, only came at the end.  On Saturday, Viljoen warned that the game would degenerate into a kicking exercise.  After this performance, he is certainly a man of his word.

Apart from the kicking though, South Africa made far too many mistakes.  Were it not for England's sub-standard performance against Argentina the day before, Viljoen would have been an extremely worried man going into next Saturday's Test in London.  As it is, he is probably merely worried at the moment.

South Africa opened the scoring through Van Straaten in the fourth minute with a penalty after a string of rolling mauls was only halted 10 metres from the Welsh line when the visitors were blown up for going over the top.

Wales had a chance to respond eight minutes later when South Africa, under immediate pressure in the scrums, were blown up for the second time for scrumming up.  Neil Jenkins, uncharacteristically, pushed the kick wide, but two minutes later Jenkins did equalise when the Boks were penalised for going off-side.

South Africa countered immediately.  Despite three golden opportunities to score though, they failed to capitalise.  First, Delport's scorching run down the left touchline was stopped less than a metre from the tryline by a magnificent covering tackle from Gareth Thomas.

Albert van den Berg spoilt the resultant lineout, but when South Africa swung it wide, they knocked on.

Fortune was still egging them on though.  The Boks won the tighthead, but Joost van der Westhuizen dropped the ball and Rob Howley hacked it forward.

The Boks, in turn, were called upon to put in some desperate tackles.

They hung on and Van Straaten restored them to the lead with his second penalty.

In the meantime, Chester Williams had replaced Pieter Rossouw on the left-wing.  He first managed to lose the ball in the tackle, and then kneed the ball into touch in his own 22 when it was clearly going there, unaided, from a Welsh boot.

From the lineout, Wales punched through the midfield and Scott Gibbs, enroute to the tryline, shoved Van der Westhuizen into the mud before diving over.  The Jenkins conversion gave the Welsh a 10-6 lead as they ran up the tunnel.

South Africa, having soaked up much of the early second half pressure induced by the Welsh, started playing with a conviction they had failed to show in the first half.

They won a number of five metre scrums and eventually Van der Westhuizen found a way over after Andre Vos had picked from the base of the scrum and driven forward.

Arwel Thomas, much to the crowd's delight, replaced Jenkins and within a minute of his coming on, stepped up to slot a 40 metre penalty to level the scores.

Buoyed by that early success, Thomas attempted two drop kicks and a penalty from slap in front of the poles, all of which missed by some margin.

As injury time ticked away, those misses were to prove particularly costly.

Man of the match:  Andre Venter.  So often the unsung hero of the South African cause.  Venter was brilliant in the wet conditions.  He never missed a tackle, always made ground when on the drive and, when AJ Venter replaced Albert van den Berg, took his ball in the lineout.  To top it all, it was his initial beak that set up the penalty that put the Boks into the lead in the 81st minute.

Moment of the match:  Venter breaking at least two tackles and surging through the gap.  His break finally gave the Boks the thrust to strike the knockout blow.

Villain of the match:  Definitely Robbie Fleck.  He behaved like a hyper-active child on the field and his foul play was not only palpably in bad taste, but immensely daft as well.  He is far too talented a player to be reduced to that level.

The scorers

Wales:  Try by Scott Gibbs.  Neil Jenkins kicked one conversion and one penalty and Arwel Thomas kicked one penalty.

South Africa:  Tries by Joost van der Westhuizen and Breyton Paulse.  Braam van Straaten kicked two conversions and three penalties.