Suffering a seventh consecutive defeat, the first test match since the World Cup saw world champions South Africa breeze past Wales with a convincing victory. The Springboks triumphed 41-13 in front of a passionate crowd at Twickenham. The first weekend of the annual Summer test matches saw the Springboks in imperious form despite a spirited display from the Welsh.
There was no upset to be had for punters hoping the Boks might still be too giddy from their fourth World Cup win in France last year. With online sports betting continuously expanding in the UK, many betting enthusiasts spent their time trawling for a new betting sites comparison site in the hopes of finding favourable odds. In the end, it was one for the bookies though as South Africa pulled off a clinical but expected display that underscored their overall dominance. South Africa had odds of 1/20 ahead of the game, compared to Wales’ 18/1, so anyone hoping to profit from the game was out of luck.
Both teams showed great physicality in what was a decent start for the Welsh, before South Africa quickly gained control, going 14-3 up after just 15 minutes. Demonstrating why they are now the undisputed powerhouse of world rugby, Warren Gatland’s men simply had no answer once they took an early lead through a Jesse Kriel try. The bad news didn’t end there as Wales were soon reduced to 13 men when Rio Dyer and Aaron Wainwright were both sin-binned—the former for a cynical offside and the latter for a maul infringement.
Despite their dampened morale by that point, Wales fought back and showed plenty of passion as they managed to hold the game to that score until the Springbok full-back Aphelele Fassi claimed an aerial ball but was penalised for a high foot that almost resulted in a red card. Wales Captain, Dewi Lake, pulled a try back but it was too little too late. This was followed by two successful penalty kicks from fly-half, Sam Costelow.
Despite that period bringing the Welsh within a point of their opponents, it would prove to be a more one-sided game from there, though not without controversy. The moment came early on in the second half when Makazole Mampimpi scored a try from what was clearly a forward pass. To the local crowd’s consternation, there was no intervention by the TMO and it proved to be a defining moment as the Boks ran riot thereafter.
Despite it being their seventh loss on the trot, there were plenty of positives for the Welsh to dwell on. While they sustained a lot of pressure for a large part of the second half, none of it was converted to any points. However, Wales could not be faulted for the effort put in and if they can be a little more clinical in upcoming matches, there are plenty of signs that point toward improvement.
With 11 minutes to go, the champions managed two more tries courtesy of Mbonambi and van der Merwe, effectively putting the game to bed. The difference between the teams proved to be South Africa’s clinical attack that saw them cut open the Welsh defence too easily at times. South Africa’s kicking was top notch too as Hendrikse managed a long-range penalty, while his replacement, Feinberg-Mngomezulu, later managed to split the uprights from inside his own half.
Overall, no great surprise in the result, though Wales showed enough grit to keep their fans hopeful that a turnaround in form could soon be on the cards. The Welsh take on Australia next in a two-test series scheduled for 6 July and 13 July respectively. However, for any Welsh sports betting enthusiasts hoping to win some money on Wales in those matches, given the Wallabies own penchant for being clinical, it might just be better to try an online casino instead.
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