Key events
Kick Off!
Dan Edwards boots the ball high to get us underway.
Our man in the stadium, Michael Aylwin, has this “The Principality Stadium is not full. They reckon on about 50,000. The roof is closed and the Welsh anthem ringing out with the usual gusto. Come back at full-time to check the latest update on the health of Welsh rugby”
The teams are out into the covered stadium in Cardiff. There are lots of empty seats as the teams settle in for the pre-match formalities.
Pre match reading
Have a read of Dan Gallan’s reflections on the November just gone
As you can tell, I’m not happy with the WRU. You may have a different view and you can share that, or anything else with me on the email.
Teams
The big selection news is that Rassie Erasmus has gone back to his patented 7-1 bench, with scrum-half Cobus Reinach the only back selected as cover.
The Wales bench has a total of 39 caps, while the Boks have 359. This is just one example of the experience gap between the two teams, and that’s before you consider the ability gap. The game could be a good development experience for the unfledged home squad, but it could also get very messy.
Wales
Blair Murray; Ellis Mee, Joe Roberts, Joe Hawkins, Rio Dyer; Dan Edwards, Kieran Hardy; Gareth Thomas, Dewi Lake, Keiron Assiratti, Ben Carter; Rhys Davies, Taine Plumtree, Alex Mann, Aaron Wainwright.
Replacements: Brodie Coghlan, Danny Southworth, Chris Coleman, James Ratti, Morgan Morse, Reuben Morgan-Williams, Callum Sheedy, Ben Thomas.
South Africa
Damian Willemse; Ethan Hooker, Damian de Allende, Andre Esterhuizen, Canan Moodie; Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Morne van den Berg; Gerhard Steenekamp, Johan Grobbelaar, Wilco Louw; Jean Kleyn, Ruan Nortje; Siya Kolisi, Franco Mostert, Jasper Wiese.
Replacements: Bongi Mbonambi, Zachary Porthen, Asenathi Ntlabakanye, Eben Etzebeth, Marco van Staden, Ben-Jason Dixon, Kwagga Smith, Cobus Reinach
Preamble
It is tempting at this point to describe the Welsh Rugby Union as a clown show. But that would unfairly overlook the commitment and dedication, training, expertise, and preparation to produce that circus based entertainment. The public also respects clowns, even the ones that oddly fear them.
The WRU are more like a Baboons On LSD show. Wherein a large group of hallucinating monkeys run about screaming, break everything in the building then start viciously eating each other, with little regard for the paying audience.
The latest symptom of this corporate approach from the custodian of the game of rugby union in Wales is today’s match. Scheduled as it is outside the agreed international window, this means that an already challenged Wales team is shorn of its non-Wales based players, while the nation’s domestic pro clubs are having to field teenagers and rugby pensioners in league games on the same day.
But wait, it gets worse. The national side are also having to play against the most powerful force in world rugby at present, as the Springboks arrive in Cardiff having put every team they’ve faced this November through their industrial shredder. This is all the more galling in the context of the Wales vs New Zealand match last week, a performance of small comforts from the men in red when all expected a walloping for the ages.
Well, barring a miracle, that’s what coming today while in the domestic United Rugby Championship, the pro clubs of Cymru face their own daunting tasks.
So, an egregious example of rugby governance and planning all round from the national union. The players and public have been shamefully let down for the best part of a decade (and more) and the scenario this weekend is the crowning top hat full of turds that exemplifies the whole mess. At this point, it might actually be worth letting the baboons have a go. How much worse could it be?
