The teams meet in the final match of the July window of the new Nations Championship.
Players of Wales form a huddle following the Nations Championship match against Argentina last weekend. They take on the Boks this weekend. Picture: Marcos Brindicci/Nations Championship via Getty Images
Former Wales flyhalf Dan Biggar fears the worst for the visitors in South Africa this weekend. They take on the Springboks in a round three Nations Championship match in Durban on Saturday.
The Boks go into the game on the back of two good wins, against England and Scotland in Joburg and Pretoria respectively. Wales beat Fiji in Cardiff but lost to Argentina in San Juan last weekend.
This weekend’s match pits the world number one team, the Boks, against the 12th ranked side, Wales.
‘Little bit short’
Biggar, who played against the Springboks 12 times in his career, said Wales had some work to do in certain departments, most especially in defence.
“I think it just reaffirmed where Wales are in the world rankings,” he told ITV’s The Debrief with Dan and ROG, according to WalesOnline, after the loss to Argentina at the weekend.
“Fiji, Japan and Italy [are] ticked off, brilliant. That’s the next step then, when you play against that next category of teams. They were a little bit short,” he added referring to the step up from playing Fiji in round one to Argentina in round two.
Biggar highlighted the number of metres conceded by Wales in defence in their first two matches – 1,192m – and number of linebreaks conceded – 39. They rank 12th of the teams competing in the Nations Championship in these areas. Also, they have missed 73 tackles, to be ranked 11th.
The Boks meanwhile have scored 13 tries so far, the most by the Southern Hemisphere teams over two rounds, suggesting they will test Wales defensively.
The Boks also clobbered Wales 73-0 in their Test at the Principality Stadium last November.
‘Impossible’
“It is impossible to win Test match rugby against top opposition [with those statistics],” Biggar said. “So there’s a lot of work for [defence coach] Peter Murchie and [head coach] Steve Tandy to do there.”
Wales are also likely to be without their regular captain, hooker Dewi Lake, who left the action early in the match against Argentina because of an injury.
According to WalesOnline, Elliot Dee was expected to fly to South Africa on Monday to join up with the squad.
If Lake is ruled out, Jac Morgan is likely to take over the captaincy on Saturday. Ryan Elias and Evan Lloyd are the other hookers in the touring squad.
