Another extraordinary match, and another excruciating defeat. This game fell six years to the day when Warren Gatland was appointed head coach of Wales, and while his team have won three Six Nations titles in that time their record against the three Sanzar nations now reads played 22, lost 21, their one solitary win having come five years ago. Among the northern hemisphere teams, only Italy have a worse record in the same time.  Not that Wales have lacked opportunities. They lost their past three games against Australia by margins of two points, one point, and two points, and their last three against South Africa by three, four and one.  This match was not as close as any of those, but was just as exhilarating as any of them. South Africa took control of it in the space of seven minutes in the first quarter. With Scott Williams down injured, Richard Hibbard was left alone in midfield, and found himself squaring off against Bryan Habana. As Habana took his first step forwards, panic started to spread. The 66,000 fans seemed to sense what was going to happen. Habana sped by Hibbard, then cut the other way past George North, passing him with a sidestep and a smile.  Habana passed to the hooker, Bismarck du Plessis, and he ran right through Liam Williams, leaving the winger in his wake. Du Plessis then off-loaded the ball towards Jean de Villiers. The pass was wayward, but De Villiers stretched back a hand, gathered it in, and dived over the line without breaking stride. It was a wonderful try, the 40th South Africa had scored in 10 games this year, a testament to the efforts of their head coach, Heyneke Meyer, to encourage his team to play in a more adventurous, and aggressive, style.  The score was bad enough, but it was the injuries that really scuppered Wales. Williams went off, and so did Jonathan Davies, who had damaged his shoulder. He was sorely missed. He had made two clean breaks in the opening minutes, both of which led to penalties that Halfpenny kicked. Wales had started superbly, but never quite threatened the South African line in the same way once Davies was off the field.  James Hook and Ashley Beck came on, but Wales were reeling rather than regrouping. In the ensuing confusion, they conceded a second try. South Africa, sensing the opportunity and seizing hold of it, chose to kick a penalty to the corner. Willem Alberts caught the throw at the lineout, and Du Plessis drove over for the try. Morne Steyn converted both, and South Africa, who had been three points down, were, all of a sudden, 11 points up.  Steyn had to be substituted soon after so Meyer switched Pat Lambie up from full-back to fly-half. When Adam Jones went off after injuring his right calf shortly after that, four players had been injured in the first 30 minutes. The casualties came one after the other. The pace was furious, the collisions ferocious, and neither team was able to slow the game down, or exert much control.  Wales did begin to regather. A series of phases in the South Africa 22, and a spell of sustained pressure, came to an end when Alun Wyn Jones spilled the ball in a tackle. But Halfpenny kicked one penalty, and another after De Villiers knocked-on and Beck hacked the ball downfield. That particular penalty was the hardest of the five Halfpenny kicked, from well out on the right.  It meant Wales were five points behind at half-time. More promisingly still, they were a man up as Francois Louw had been sent to the sin-bin for hitting Hibbard in the head with his elbow.  Wales should have made more of the advantage. As it was, they did not score again until long after Louw was back on. Their next penalty, won at a scrum, meant there were two points in it with 25 minutes to play. But that was as close as the game got.  Both teams went down to 14 men soon after, when Alain Rolland sent Gethin Jenkins and Coenie Oosthuizen, who had been on the pitch for a minute, to the sin-bin for collapsing a scrum. With Wales having run out of props – Paul James had already replaced Scott Andrews, who had, in turn, come on for Jones – the scrums were uncontested for the next 10 minutes. The game though, remained as brutal as ever.  The Welsh had shut out the South Africans out for 50 minutes now, but their line was finally split open when Fourie du Preez, sprinting sideways across the pitch, looked up and spotted space out to his left.  He chipped the ball into it, and then hared off in hot pursuit. Jaque Fourie got there first, the bounce helping him beat Rhys Priestland to the ball. Fourie gathered it, turned on his heel and shot a short pass to Du Preez, who slipped through the gap and had an easy run to the line. Like De Villiers's own effort before it, the try stemmed from a superb, and spontaneous, piece of individual skill.  Wales were still not beaten. They had their best chance soon after, when North chased his own kick down the wing. But they blew it. They have one more shot against a top team this winter, when they play Australia at the end of the month.
Wales, who scored all their points through Leigh Halfpenny, lost three players to injury before half-time at the Millennium Stadium