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11/29 12:23 CST Record win by Springboks in Wales marred by Etzebeth red card
for eye gouge
Record win by Springboks in Wales marred by Etzebeth red card for eye gouge
CARDIFF, Wales (AP) --- Every fear for Wales came to pass as South Africa
bossed their rugby mismatch to an inevitable 73-0 victory in a half-filled
Principality Stadium on Saturday.
The Springboks handed Wales its worst loss at home, and Wales was nilled in
Cardiff for the first time since 1967.
But the triumphant end to an unbeaten tour of Europe by South Africa was
stained by Eben Etzebeth eye-gouging Alex Mann in a melee in the dying moments.
Etzebeth was issued a straight red card in his record-extending 141st test for
the Springboks.
South Africa scored 11 tries, two of them by flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu,
whose nine-of-11 goalkicking lifted his personal haul to 28 points. The player
of the match was wrecking ball midfielder Andre Esterhuizen.
The Welsh Rugby Union has stabilized its finances to the point of earning a
profit, and booked this money-making matchup with the double world champion
outside the test window.
Wales could not select 13 English- and French-based players for a flagship team
which had already conceded 52 points each to Argentina and New Zealand this
month. That left a skeleton crew set up to be slaughtered.
The Springboks had to release nine players from the Ireland win last weekend
including the last two world players of the year Malcolm Marx and Pieter-Steph
du Toit, but showed their ruthless streak by picking their first 7-1 bench of
the year.
The bench had more caps (374) than the entire Wales team (306) and all eight
reserves made an impressive Bomb Squad appearance in the 51st minute when the
score was 49-0 and Wales was playing with 14 men.
Wales back-rower Taine Plumtree was doubly unfortunate; he forced off teammate
Aaron Wainwright briefly after accidentally putting a fist in his eye then was
yellow-carded. Just when his time was up, Wainwright was sin-binned for a high
tackle. In the 20 minutes they were off, South Africa bumped the score from
35-0 to 61-0.
The most inexperienced Wales forward pack since 2018 couldn't live with the
Boks scrum, which was the launch pad for their first five tries to Gerhard
Steenekamp, Ethan Hooker, Jasper Wiese, Morne van den Berg and Wilco Louw.
South Africa, up 28-0 at halftime, barely used its backs. But the backs were
more active after halftime with tries by Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Canan Moodie,
Esterhuizen, Ruan Nortje and Etzebeth.
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AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby
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