Best Boks vs Wales: De Villiers Pure Dynamite in Durban

An omnipresent Paul de Villiers was pure dynamic in Durban as the Springboks walloped Wales 43-0 on Saturday to finish the home leg of the inaugural Nations Championship at the top of the Southern Hemisphere table, writes Quintin van Jaarsveld.

ALSO READ: Best Boks vs Scotland: Pollard On Point In Pretoria.

South Africa dominated the clash from start to finish to blank a nuggety but outclassed Welsh side for the second time in as many meetings between the countries.

Jasper Wiese, Cobus Reinach and Jesse Kriel scored in the first half, with Jaco Williams (one of four debutants along with Carlu Sadie, Ruben van Heerden and Vusi Moyo), Herschel Jantjies, Kurt-Lee Arendse and De Villiers adding their names to the scoresheet in the second stanza.

Overall, Rassie Erasmus’ men weren’t as clinical as they would’ve hoped, leaving a number of extra tries on the field, but defensively, they made a statement by keeping the visitors scoreless after leaking four tries and missing 46 tackles in their 42-28 win over Scotland seven days earlier.

Our top three Springbok standouts were:

Paul de Villiers

A prodigy who captained the Junior Boks a couple of years ago, De Villiers has taken to Test rugby like a duck to water, proving he’s a natural at the highest level in the absence of the iconic Siya Kolisi.

Outstanding as a last-minute call-up to the starting line-up for the Nations Championship opener against England, which South Africa won 45-21, and again in his sophomore showing for the Boks against Scotland, the 23-year-old was even better at Kings Park.

“Paulie D” was in perpetual motion to help decimate the Dragons and achieved two career firsts, scoring his maiden Bok try – just reward for his tireless endeavour – close to fulltime, and earning his first Man of the Match award in the Test arena.

While not the biggest, he was used as the Boks’ go-to battering ram. Here, he was willing, topping the carries count with 17 and running full tilt into the fire, but had limited success. He showed silky hands as well, including putting Malcolm Marx into a gap with a nice inside ball.

Fantastic on defence, De Villiers broke into double digits here, too, making 10 tackles, the second-most by a Bok behind only Van Heerden (11). Rounding off his complete performance were the two turnovers he seized, the first on his 5m line and the second in the 75th minute.

Jasper Wiese

Wiese was a dominant force on both sides of the ball. A beast with ball in hand and a one-man roadblock on defence, the 30-year-old issued another brutal reminder of why he’s the Boks’ first-choice No 8.

The powerhouse ran an excellent line and blasted through the Welsh defence to draw first blood, and was happy to truck it up in heavy traffic, which saw him win the gainline battle consistently.

Like a shark smelling blood in the water, he pounced on Tomos Williams and forced a turnover, and later almost smashed Rhys Carre out of his boots.

Special mention must also be made of his younger brother Cobus, who was colossal in his 47-minute outing.

Jaco Williams

The 20-year-old had to get through a bit of turbulence in the first half but grew into the game to deliver an excellent Bok debut.

The fact that he didn’t have it all his own way under the high ball initially and overcame that showed the mental strength of the young gun and made his first performance in the Green and Gold that much more impressive.

The key moment of his showing came just before halftime when he won an aerial battle against the Welsh scrumhalf, allowing Kriel to collect the rebound and trot over.

The second half was a fairy-tale 40 minutes for him as he scored his first Bok try just after the break and put Jantjies in for another. Plus, he made a terrific try-saving tackle on Ellis Mee.