Fiery first Test between Boks and Wales hints at an exciting series

There were plenty of fiery moments during the first Test between South Africa and Wales at Loftus, with both teams showing a lot of passion as the home side narrowly won an enthralling encounter on Saturday evening.

From the first whistle to the last there were many moments when the players stepped up on each other, got into a bit of handbags and remonstrated with the ref, with Wales in particular giving the Boks a lot of needle in an effort to unsettle them.

The plan worked perfectly in the first half as the visitors held a shock 18-3 lead at the break, but once the home side managed to calm down and go through the phases, they managed to battle back into the contest and secure a last-gasp 32-29 win.

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When quizzed on their tactics after the match, Wales captain Dan Biggar claimed he didn’t see anything wrong with it and that it was all part of the modern game.

“I don’t know what the referee expected us to do, just come here and lie down and give South Africa everything their own way? From our point of view we wanted to get in their faces, get in amongst it and not take a backward step,” explained Biggar.

“That’s part of the game at the minute. Coming here, if you stand off South Africa, you’re going to get steamrolled pretty quickly. You’ve got to show some fight, some energy, some aggression and some competitiveness and just get into it.

“I didn’t see any issue because they were just as niggly, competitive and abrasive as we were, but from our point of view that was perfect for us. It was exactly what we wanted.”

Animated Kolisi

Bok captain Siya Kolisi was also very animated during the match – more so than usual – and admitted Wales managed to get under their skin to an extent.

“Things weren’t going our way in the first half. We couldn’t get the maul going and we obviously did a couple of things out of character,” said Kolisi.

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“What they wanted to do they did in the first half. Everything was on their terms. Our maul wasn’t really going,” the skipper added.

“But we never panicked. We didn’t feel at any stage that there was no way we were going to come back into the game, because we know what we are capable of.”

With both sides showing that they weren’t afraid to express themselves, it bodes well for an exciting final two games of the series in Bloemfontein and Cape Town over the next two weeks.