A massive test lies ahead

It was impossible not to eavesdrop on the conversation of two Welsh journalists as they walked away from the post-match press conference at the weekend.

They were lamenting the way Wales had once again squandered a gilt-edged opportunity to beat a major southern hemisphere team.

“That was so close, Warren Gatland must be gutted,” said the one.

But it was the response of his colleague that struck a chord: “Yes, it was so close and yet so far, but we have to accept that there must be a reason why we have only beaten these guys once in our history.”

It’s hard to comment on the whole of the last 104 years, but certainly I might have an answer for where it has gone wrong for Wales since the first Springbok post-isolation visit in 1994. It comes down to attitude and self-belief, and it was the entire reason why the Bok win, and the manner it was achieved, should not have been a surprise.

Wales have now played two games in a row against the Springboks at Millennium Stadium where, if you consider the advantage they enjoyed on the scoreboard at stages of both games, they have bottled it. And there have been some other close games there over the years where the Boks have just finished ahead, including the 2008 clash which was won for South Africa by Ruan Pienaar’s boot.

Wales coach Gatland said after that game the Welsh had done most of the playing and yet they had lost – and he seemed surprised by that. But the time it happened quite often, for the laws did not conspire as heavily then in favour of the team with momentum and possession as they do now.

Those comments were echoed in a sense after the most recent game when Welsh backline coach Rob Howley pointed out that his team had scored three tries to two: “In international rugby nine times out of 10 the team that scores three tries ends up winning,” he said.

Indeed, and the Welsh also outscored the Boks in tries in 2008. Yet they still lost, and from the moment that the Boks, as they so often do, hit their straps just before half-time, it always looked like the flagging Welsh were going to lose.

Some Welsh critics made the point afterwards that at least this time their team didn’t drop their heads, but I didn’t see it that way. To me they looked like a team going through the pretence of believing, but there was no more to it than that.

The Boks had the attitude, the Boks had the self-belief, and it was the reason they won. Considering where they were at stages of the match, it was a great triumph for the determination and focus for a team which unfortunately is still making too much of a habit of looking at a test match as something that starts in the 35th minute.

Imagine what the Boks would do to their opposition were they ever to extend the form they showed in the first 25 minutes of the second half against Australia in Bloemfontein and the first quarter hour of the second half in Cardiff over an entire 80 minutes.

It was simple stuff that brought them back into the game against Wales. Opposition coaches will tell you there is nothing unpredictable about the Boks. That is not necessarily meant as an insult – it just means the key for the South Africans is to just ensure that what they do, they do properly. When they kept the ball in the middle stages of the match, they looked an irresistible force.

However coming fast into view is a match against a team that not only now appears to have shed the self-belief problems other northern sides lack, but which also has developed a playing style not dissimilar to that which bothered the Boks in the Tri-Nations.

You do get the sense that attitude is the most important thing for the Boks now, and a gutsy win might even be more important for what it does to the togetherness and focus of the team than one attained with ease and with style.

It is a fact though the Boks got cut at the back way too often by a Welsh team that was hopeless on attack against Australia the previous week. A dry day at Twickenham could give us the perfect finish to the test match part of this tour as England will then provide a perfect examination of the effectiveness of the current Bok playing style.

If the Boks pass that test, then we really can be sure they are moving in the right direction. First though comes Scotland, who should not be underestimated...