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'They don't like it': Wales set to get under Boks' skin...again

SPOTLIGHT: Former Wales prop Adam Jones believes Wayne Pivac’s side will have more than enough firepower to beat the Springboks in Saturday’s second Test in Bloemfontein.

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Jones, who has toured South Africa with Wales and the British and Irish Lions, was impressed with how the Welsh pack got under the Boks’ skin in the first Test in Pretoria last weekend.

Wales narrowly lost the 29-32 against a Springbok team featuring a number of stalwarts.

However, to the surprise of many, Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber has made 14 changes to his starting XV for the second Test. Among the starters this Saturday will be two uncapped players – Bulls wing Kurt-Lee Arendse and Stormers’ No.8 Evan Roos.

There are four other uncapped players – scrumhalf Grant Williams, prop Ntuthuko Mchunu, lock Ruan Nortje and flank Deon Fourie – among the replacements.

With all those changes, Jones believes Wales will have a massive opportunity to give the Boks a few problems and make some history at the Free State Stadium.

“It’s funny someone was having a go at Dan Biggar for being in their faces when they’re the most in-your-face team you can play,” Jones told WalesOnline. “They pride themselves on that physical and verbal edge.

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“You can’t go out there and not match them physically. The 1974 Lions had the 99 call to fight fire with fire. Obviously, you can’t do that anymore, but I thought the fact we stood up to them was brilliant.

“They’ve done it for years to every other team. When teams do stand up to them, they don’t like it. Is hypocritical the right word? They don’t like having it done back to them.

“I thought it was a masterstroke to pick Dan Lydiate, while Gareth Thomas and Dillon Lewis really fronted up. It was a fantastic performance by the Welsh pack across the 80 minutes.

The story continues below…

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Jones also had something to say about the refereeing decisions, especially Louis Rees-Zammit’s yellow card for slowing the ball down in the game’s final minutes.

“A few decisions went against us,” said Jones.

“The Louis Rees-Zammit one was horrendously tough. That was the classic referee going with the home crowd decision. Was he in the position to see Rees-Zammit’s release? If you can go to the TMO for that, you should. It cost us seven points and a card, so it was a huge turning point.

“They’ll have wanted to prove a lot of people wrong. How will they take it next week with that South Africa team? It’s all changed, but there’s still talent. It’s at altitude again so it’ll be tough.

“But this Welsh team won’t have put all their eggs in one basket here. They’ll be ready for another crack at them. I don’t think it’ll be a one-off performance. We’ve got an opportunity to beat them with such a changed side.

“Wales won’t be thinking ‘oh God, here they come again’ with that many changes. I think we can take them on.”

Being a former prop, Jones was impressed with Wales’ performance in the scrums against the Bok heavyweights.

“There was one scrum in the second half when Owen Watkin was on the flank,” he explained. “They pushed us back and Taulupe managed to get it out.

“But the pleasing thing was how square Dillon Lewis stayed. If he turned in on an angle or tried to bail out, they would have got a penalty. The fact he stayed square, despite getting pushed back, meant there wasn’t a penalty.

“I thought Dillon was brilliant. He did a real good job. The penalty in the first half, we didn’t get marched back but it’s a call that the ref or touch judge has to make.

“He probably couldn’t see the first one with Dillon. It’s on the touch judge and sometimes the reputation of the opposition player goes with you.

“If it goes down, whether their loosehead hinges or Dillon flattens out on the floor, their reputation means they’ll probably get those 50/50 calls. That shouldn’t be the case, but it is.

“I was really impressed with the front row. I was surprised Tomas Francis didn’t start, but Dillon was outstanding. So was Gareth Thomas.”

Source: WalesOnline

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