Tariff Free Rugby

Wales playing South Africa at rugby in Washington DC. It doesn’t sound right and at the end of the match you realised that as a PR exercise, if that was what it was, it surely failed miserably to enthuse the hard-bitten US sports fan. The first half an hour was simply dreadful with countless knock-ons and collapsed scrums and indeed almost everything that can be turgid about rugby. In mitigation you could cite the fact that two scratch teams were playing in wet conditions but still…

I know US sports coverage is punctuated by countless commercial breaks but at least there is some decent action in between. On this evidence, Mr Trump certainly doesn’t need to think about tariffs on the import of rugby matches as nobody would want to buy the rights.

Still to the game. After the first half an hour of dross, Wales surprised everyone, themselves included, when they scored two tries and really looked on top. Hal Amos and Tomos Williams found their way to the line following defensive lapses by South Africa. It looked for all the world as if more scores would follow as they led 14-3 at half time.

The second half was really dominated by South Africa as they stepped up their forward power and started to put the Welsh set piece under immense pressure. A panicky Welsh back move led to Ismaiel intercepting a poor pass from Amos and racing in for a try. Wales responded with a penalty but the Springboks were still within a sore at 17-10.

As South Africa pressed, the Welsh defence was heroic at times with plenty of guts and determination on view. One tackle by Hill in the corner will live long in the memory. The Welsh cause was also helped considerably by the number of Springbok errors when a try looked well within their grasp.  The sin binning of Watkin for deliberately batting the ball out of play gave the Springboks an extra man in the backs and they used this to perfection when Mapimpi squeezed in in the corner for a well-worked try. The excellent conversion brought the scores level at 17-17 and there looked to be only one winner as Wales seemed to be wilting under the pressure applied by a Springboks’ pack that had been revitalised by substitutions.

South Africa edged into the lead from a penalty (17-20) and it all looked up for Wales. Just as I had written them off, a dropped high ball gave Wales field position. Although the Boks regained possession, a couple of charged down kicks later, Elias managed to beat the opposition to the loose ball in the South African in-goal area to score a try totally against the run of play. The conversion failed but Wales held a slender 22-20 lead with five minutes or so of the match remaining. Wales made hard work of it but just about managed to hang on to record a victory thanks to a very opportune turnover won by skipper Ellis Jenkins.

I suppose the fact that Wales edged the match in a nail-biting finish helps you to forget the first half an hour. The experimental Welsh team did battle hard and the defence was good. There were plenty of positives among the individual performances too with Ellis Jenkins, Cory Hill and Tomos Williams making telling contributions. The forwards were, however, overpowered in the second half and the pack will need to be beefed up if Wales are to tame the Pumas in the next phase of the tour. I hope that the injury sustained by Steff Evans is not too serious and he makes a speedy recovery.

Come on Wales!