20 -15 South Africa Wales

South Africa manged to withstand a late onslaught to beat Wales 20-15 in their opening end of year tour at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday.

The Boks with eight of the 2007 World Cup final winning team, scored two tries through Adrian Jacobs and Jean de Villiers, with the excellent Ruan Pienaar hitting two penalties and two conversions for a result that was ultimately far more comfortable than the 20-15 scoreline indicated.

Wales initially struggled to get past the rock solid South African defence and dominance in loose play , failed to cross the Springbok line, Wales did notch up five penalties through debutant Leigh Halfpenny and James Hook.

John Smit said that while it was good to get a win, that their overall performance had not been the one he had looked for ,which it is a bit of understatement they went to sleep in the second half.

"It is always good to get a win on the board. However, we made a mistake in falling back into defensive mode.

"We paid for that. We waited for the game to finish with 15 minutes remaining and it was very frustrating," said Smit.

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