Wales knocked out of their stride by Conradie

South Africa 34 Wales 19

If Wales had kept their concentration, and line, intact at the end of the first half they could well have been celebrating their first victory over the Springboks on South African soil.

So poor were debutant Springbok coach Rudolf Straueli's men in the first 30 minutes you would have thought they had never seen each other before arriving for a match that was supposed to herald a new era in South African rugby.

Instead it left more questions unanswered for Straueli, and would hardly have had the Wallabies or All Blacks biting their nails ahead of the upcoming Tri-Nations series.

This wasn't just down to the Boks starting badly; Wales were unrecognisable from the side that showed little appetite for anything during a pretty sorry Six Nations campaign. In fact, Colin Charvis and his men totally dominated the opening 30 minutes and looked capable of giving their new coach Steve Hansen something to smile about.

At long, long last there were signs from the Welsh side that they are getting to grips with the Hansen style. They knocked the Springboks out of their stride with a marvellous opening quarter.

The highlight of that bright opening came when the Welsh pack went through 10 phases of play in the build up to a first try from the left-winger Craig Morgan that stunned everyone. Such was the Welsh dominance, Morgan could have scored a hat-trick in the opening 16 minutes, just knocking on after charging down a Stefan Terblanche kick ahead with an open field ahead of him, and then losing the ball in the tackle with the line five metres away.

It simply got better for the well organised Welsh side as Stephen Jones kicked a penalty to make it 8-0 and then replied instantly to Andre Pretorius' penalty with a drop goal. No problem, no trouble.

The Springboks were under the cosh and they were in desperate need of a spark. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. It was Western Province scrum-half Johannes Conradie, making his Test debut, who took it upon himself to make things change.

To begin with, it was his quickly-taken penalty in the Welsh 22 that created enough havoc in the previously solid red defence to allow Marius Joubert to power past Kevin Morgan for a vital try. Then he did the same after the break to create a penalty try – some debut from South African rugby's golden boy in waiting.

If that try from Joubert brought a huge sigh of relief, there was better news when skipper Bobby Skinstad skinned Robin McBryde to make it two tries in seven minutes at the end of the first half. That score gave the Boks a lead they hardly deserved, yet were never to surrender. Having come through their nervous period, the home side settled down and produced three more tries. Even though Jones reduced the gap to a single point with a 44th minute penalty, the introduction of Brent Russell at outside-half, allowing Pretorius to move to full back, made a huge difference to the back line movement. Victor Matfield touched down from a line-out drive and then the penalty try was awarded against Jones. It all looked over for Wales, but Charvis rallied his troops and helped Rhys Williams to score in the corner.

There was still time for a fifth Boks try from Faan Rautenbach, but there was enough fire in the Welsh side to keep interest alive in next weekend's Cape Town Second Test.

South Africa 34 Wales 19
Tries: Joubert, Skinstad Tries: Morgan, Williams
Matfield, Penalty, Rautenbach Pens: Jones 2
Cons: Pretorius 3 Drop goal: Jones
Pens: Pretorius

Half-time: 15-11 Attendance: 38,000

South Africa: R Loubscher (Natal Sharks); S Terblanche (Natal Sharks), M Joubert (Western Stormers), A Snyman (Natal Sharks), B Paulse (Western Stormers); A Pretorius (Cats), J Conradie (Western Stormers); D Human (Western Stormers), J Dalton (Blue Bulls), W Meyer (Cats), J Labuschagne (Cats), V Matfield (Blue Bulls), W Britz (Natal Sharks), A J Venter (Natal Sharks), B Skinstad (Western Stormers, capt). Replacements: O le Roux (Natal Sharks) for Dalton 70; F Rautenbach (Western Stormers) for Meyer 57; J van Niekerk (Cats) for Britz 62; A Jacobs (Blue Bulls) for Snyman 73; B Russell (Mpulamanga Pumas) for Loubscher 47.

Wales: K Morgan (Swansea); R Williams (Cardiff), M Taylor (Swansea), A Marinos (Newport), C Morgan (Cardiff); S Jones (Llanelli), D Peel (Llanelli); I Thomas (Llanelli), R McBryde (Llanelli), B Evans (Swansea), G Llewellyn (Neath), S Williams (Northampton), M Owen (Pontypridd), M Williams (Cardiff), C Charvis (Swansea, capt). Replacements: M Madden (Llanelli) for Evans 77; R Sidoli (Pontypridd) for Llewellyn 62; R Parks (Pontypridd) for Martyn Williams 62; R Powell (Cardiff) for Peel 78; N Jenkins (Cardiff) for Jones 77; T Shanklin (Saracens) for Marinos 70

Referee: K Deaker (New Zealand).