VIDEO: The All Blacks won't roll over this easy
It was a comfortable Saturday afternoon stroll in the park – a record winning margin that showed South Africa means business.
The 36-point margin (52-16) was the Springboks’ biggest win over Wales in Cardiff and the second-largest win in all matches.
The Boks beat the Welsh Dragons by 83 points (96-13) at Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria, in 1998 and their previous biggest win in Cardiff was the 22-point (34-12) win in 2007.
However, Bok coach Jacques Nienaber admitted the Welsh selection that featured this weekend wasn’t exactly the yardstick to measure your World Cup prospects by.
South Africa’s next assignment is against New Zealand at Twickenham this coming Friday.
Even if the All Blacks field a ‘C-Team’ – as has been suggested – the Boks can expect much sterner resistance.
Nienaber admitted they could have scored a few more tries against Wales this past Saturday and their discipline also let them down at time.
“When we face the teams we are going to face going forward, we will have to improve those aspects,” Nienaber told a post-match media briefing in Cardiff.
The Bok coach conceded that the Wales team was not the strongest that could be fielded and that they won’t have the same luxury against the All Blacks at Twickenham this coming Friday.
(WATCH as Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber unpacks his team’s record win over Wales in Cardiff at the weekend.…)
“It’s fair to say, and without any disrespect to Wales, they could have selected a more experienced side,” said the Bok coach.
“Like we did against Wales in Bloemfontein last year, they probably wanted to see if their fringe players can go to the World Cup.
“From our perspective, we knew we were going to get a young guy against us; a desperate guy playing against a Siya [Kolisi] and that’s what we got.
“In the first half, for 20 or 30 minutes, it really was a grind and we had to be clinical in our approach to wear them down.
“That’s what we wanted, and that’s what we expected.
“Because we didn’t know them so well and we had to find solutions in the game – for instance I thought their kicking game in the first half was excellent.
“We had to find solutions because we didn’t know the wings and the scrumhalves so well, so I thought that was great preparation for us.”
It is not just New Zealand this coming week, but teams like Scotland (Marseille, September 10 in their World Cup opener) and Ireland (in Paris, September 23) that will ensure the Boks must raise the bar considerably.
“We have to get better going into France,” he said.
“We’re on the side of the draw that’s knockout from game one and just to get out of our pool will be a challenge.
“Everyone would know that it’s our aim to go back-to-back and retain the World Cup and we can’t hide from it.
“We want to be the second team to successfully defend it and the bonus would be that we’d the best first team to win four world cups.
“It’s a massive thing that we’re playing for, and you can talk around it but that’s our goal – and to achieve it we’ll have to get better.”
Returning Bok skipper Siya Kolisi also cautioned against reading too much into the record margin against Wales.
“As a team, we did well,” Kolisi said.
“I thought our discipline could be a lot better, especially in the first half.
“However, we wanted to stay disciplined in the system and I think we did that well.
“But next week [against New Zealand] is a different challenge and we’re going to have to get up again.”
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