Wales and South Africa bring the curtain down on another year of Test rugby with the balance of inter-hemisphere power riding on the result.
Winter may well have arrived but Cardiff on Saturday offers Wales the challenging task of narrowing the gap in the duel over the autumn series between the NatWest 6 Nations and the Rugby Championship. While the overall score stands at 7-5 to the countries from south of the equator, Britain and Ireland can point to a collective 5-3 win over the Rugby Championship quartet, England and Ireland having accounted for all but one of the victories. Their success is reflected in the latest World Rugby rankings. A month that began with Ireland returning a record win over the Springboks ends with Joe Schmidt’s squad replacing Australia in third place, immediately behind England in their patient pursuit of the undisputed No. 1, New Zealand. For the first time, therefore, the NatWest 6 Nations will feature two of the world’s top three. England-Ireland at Twickenham on ‘Super Saturday’ which happens to be St. Patrick’s Day may stand out even from this distance as a potential title decider but another contender will have something to say about that. Scotland have stood out for many as the team of the autumn. They could scarcely have made a more persuasive declaration of NatWest 6 Nations intent, their three BT Murrayfield matches generating 16 home tries and 28 in total.
Had it not been for the cover tackle of the year, by Beauden Barrett on a scorching Stuart Hogg, Gregor Townsend’s rampant team would have been one conversion away from doing what no Scotland team has ever done, beating the All Blacks. They followed that seven days later with an extravaganza on an unprecedented scale, 53 points and eight tries against the Wallabies. Against opponents undermanned by the dismissal of tighthead Sekope Kepu just before half-time when the game was in the balance, the Scots made them pay a high price in exhilarating fashion. Australia were simply unable to live with Scottish pace and precision, qualities which almost proved too much for the All Blacks the previous week. John Barclay’s inspired leadership demanded that his team followed up one memorable performance with another. Losing the dynamic Hogg in the warm-up meant a last-minute reshuffle, Sean Maitland switching to full-back and Byron McGuigan filling the subsequent vacancy on the left wing. Not for nothing, therefore, did Townsend cite a growing resilience and strength in depth as qualities behind an ‘amazing result.’ They may not care to say so publicly but Scotland will settle for nothing less than going flat out for their first NatWest 6 Nations title, even if they went into the inaugural season as defending champions. Wales’ famous slaying of Lawrence Dallaglio’s England at Wembley in April 1999 meant that Jim Telfer’s Scots finished the last Five Nations campaign on top of the heap.
The opening round in two months’ time takes Ireland to Paris, England to Rome and Scotland to Cardiff. They are then back to Edinburgh for successive home matches against France on Sunday, February 11 and England 13 days later. Meanwhile, Wales are too preoccupied with their final challenge of the year, beating the Springboks for the second successive year. They will have to do it without seven Lions – Liam Williams, Jonathan Davies, George North, Jamie Roberts, Sam Warburton, Justin Tipuric and Ross Moriarty, all missing either because of injury or unavailability. The Springboks have beaten France and Italy since going down 38-3 in Dublin. Wales, who gave the All Blacks a game for almost 60 minutes last week before conceding two tries in six minutes, beat them with a bit to spare this time last year, just as they did for the grand opening of Principality Stadium almost 20 years ago. June 26, 1999: Wales 29, South Africa 19 (Teams at bottom) Autumn series: NatWest 6 Nations winners: England 2 (v Argentina, Australia) Ireland 2 (v South Africa, Argentina) Scotland 1 (v Australia) France 0 Italy 0 Losers: France 2 (v New Zealand, South Africa) Italy 2 (v Argentina, South Africa) Wales 2 (v Australia, v New Zealand) Scotland 1 (v New Zealand) Rugby Championship winners: New Zealand 3 (v France, Scotland, Wales) South Africa 2 (v France, Italy) Australia 1 (v Wales) Argentina 1 (v Italy) Losers: Argentina 2 (v England, Ireland) Australia 2 (v England, Scotland) South Africa 1 (v Ireland) First Test at Principality Stadium: June 26, 1999: Wales 29, South Africa 19. Wales: S Howarth (Sale); G Thomas (Cardiff), A Bateman (Northampton), M Taylor (Swansea), D James (Pontypridd); N Jenkins (Pontypridd), R Howley (Cardiff, capt); P Rogers (Newport), Garin Jenkins (Swansea), D Young (Cardiff); C Quinnell (Cardiff), C Wyatt (Llanelli); C Charvis (Swansea), B Sinkinson (Neath), S Quinnell (Llanelli). Substitutes: A Lewis (Cardiff), for Rogers; J Humphreys (Cardiff), for Jenkins. Tries: Taylor, Thomas. Conversions: N Jenkins 2. Penalties: N Jenkins 5. South Africa: P Montgomery; S Terblanche, P Muller, J Mulder, P Rossouw; B van Straaten, W Swanepoel; R Kempson, A Drotske, C Visagie; S Broome, K Otto; C Krige, J Erasmus, G Teichmann, capt. Substitutes: G du Toit, for van Straaten; D von Hoesslin, for Swanepoel; O le Roux, for Kempson, A Venter, for Broome. Tries: Swanepoel, Montgomery. Penalties: van Straaten 2, du Toit. Referee: Ed Morrison (England).
