{"id":43306,"date":"2025-11-28T13:08:32","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T13:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=43306"},"modified":"2025-11-28T13:08:32","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T13:08:32","slug":"boks-seeking-fifth-straight-win-on-tour-wales-out-to-show-fight-in-cardiff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2025\/11\/28\/boks-seeking-fifth-straight-win-on-tour-wales-out-to-show-fight-in-cardiff\/","title":{"rendered":"Boks seeking fifth straight win on tour, Wales out to show fight in Cardiff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p><h2>The Boks are looking for a fifth straight win on tour this month.<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>South Africa take on Wales in the season-ending international Test on Saturday at a time when the gulf between the two rugby nations has never been more apparent.<\/p>\n<p>The Springboks are back-to-back world champions and arrive in the Welsh capital in high spirits on the back of wins over Japan (61-7), France (32-17), Italy (32-14) and Ireland (24-13).<\/p>\n<p>A victory in Cardiff would mark the second successive season that they complete an Autumn Series cleansweep.<\/p>\n<p>It would also mean a 12th victory in 14 Tests this year, including a 67-30 thrashing of Argentina and a record 43-10 win over New Zealand in Wellington.<\/p>\n<p>Wales, however, languish in 11th spot in the world rankings, their only two Test victories since the 2023 Rugby World Cup over Japan.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-best-players-missing\">Best players missing<\/h2>\n<p>They beat them in Japan in July \u2014 ending a run of 18 successive defeats \u2014 and in Cardiff two weeks ago, which was the hosts first home win in over two years.<\/p>\n<p>Having conceded 52 points to both Argentina and New Zealand this November, pundits fear for Saturday\u2019s game, which is being played outside the international window.<\/p>\n<p>As a result Wales coach Steve Tandy has lost 13 players, who have returned to their clubs.<\/p>\n<p>It has left the Welsh team depleted and looking decidedly underpowered for the clash at the Prinicipality Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>While Bok coach Rassie Erasmus has also faced the departure of several big names, including newly-crowned world player of the year Malcolm Marx, the strength in depth he has developed means Wales will face a formidable South Africa side.<\/p>\n<p>Eben Etzebeth, with 140 caps to his name, is named as part of a monster \u201cBomb Squad\u201d bench featuring seven forwards and just one back, Cobus Reinach.<\/p>\n<p>There are 374 caps alone among the Bok replacements. Wales\u2019 starting XV boasts just 267 and their three front row replacements only two between them.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-no-room-for-negativity\">No room for negativity<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cIn any walk of life, what are we going to focus on?\u201d asked Tandy, who took over from interim coach Matt Sherratt following Warren Gatland\u2019s departure after a second spell at the helm of Welsh rugby.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre we going to be downbeat on something? It\u2019s an opportunity for these boys, and for us as coaches to coach against South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t see how we go into it and be negative. I don\u2019t believe in that anyway, I want to see the best in what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Erasmus, who as an abrasive flanker was part of the first South Africa team to lose to Wales in 1999, insisted that the Welsh were \u201cthe kind of people who don\u2019t give up\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t understand currently what\u2019s going on in the Wales set-up,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t understand the politics and what works and what doesn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Erasmus added: \u201cI know deep there in the underbelly of the Welsh there\u2019s fight and somewhere it\u2019s going to come right and Tandy looks like he\u2019s getting the structures together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Bok coach acknowledged the chasm in experience between the two teams, with his side averaging 40 caps per player to Wales\u2019 11.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt can either be a very highly energetic team of the Welsh that gives nothing away and just fights like hell and really surprises us, or we can grind it out if we have the right mindset and eventually try and get away from them on the scoreboard.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe hope to win the game and fly home with our heads high. But the Welsh will certainly try and stop us.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Boks #seeking #straight #win #tour #Wales #show #fight #Cardiff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Boks are looking for a fifth straight win on tour this month. South Africa take on Wales in the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43306"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43308,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43306\/revisions\/43308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}