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CARDIFF, United Kingdom. – It hasn’t taken long for the decision to bring back Japan-based club players to be vindicated, with both Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer and skipper Jean de Villiers heaping praise on the role played by man-of-the-match Fourie du Preez and centre Jaque Fourie in Saturday’s 24-15 rugby win over Wales in Cardiff.
The duo silenced the noisy Millennium Stadium crowd by combining to produce the try that effectively killed off the Welsh hopes with a quarter of an hour to go, but both players contributed more than just the moment of brilliance that led to Du Preez scoring beneath the posts.
Du Preez’s tactical kicking in particular was regarded as the ultimate difference between two sides that were separated by the fact that one had a blend between physicality and clinical efficiency and the other didn’t. Even though the Boks shaded the collisions, Welsh captain Sam Warburton felt his men had fronted their opponents physically afterwards.

“We had problems with their mauling but other than I felt we were comfortable  and we felt we were in the game.
“We are disappointed we lost obviously, but I have felt more disappointed after other performances in the past,” said Warburton.

Where the difference came in though was that the Welsh threw all their effort into producing what was needed physically, but weren’t accurate enough in controlling the ball, with their play being blighted by mistakes.

Not for the first time in matches between these sides at this venue, Welsh fire and passion did not prove sufficient against a side that was just more controlled and more comfortable with the pace of the game.

“I thought that what we did was make full use of our chances much better than they did and that was a step forward from the Rugby Championship,” said Bok hooker Bismarck du Plessis afterwards. – AFP.