. A lot of good Welsh sides have tried and failed to win in South Africa in the 60 years they’ve been touring. That team, coached by Wayne Pivac, and captained by Dan Biggar, were the first and only one to do it. They might even have won the series except the ifs and buts went against them in the first Test at Loftus Versfeld the previous week, when they lost 32-29 after Damian Willemse kicked a penalty in the final minute.
Wales have fallen a long way in very little time. This time last autumn, or near enough, they were 10-6 up against Argentina at half-time in the quarter-finals of the World Cup. They lost 29-17, and haven’t won a Test since bar an-end-of-season match against the Barbarians. That’s 11 straight defeats. Almost everyone reckons it will be 12 by the time of the final whistle in their match against South Africa on Saturday. A couple of bookmakers have the Springboks at 100-1 on, which is a consequence of the funereal gloom that surrounds Welsh rugby now.
Gatland has seemed like a sacked man working, if not a dead man walking, ever since he said he was willing to resign if it was in “the best interests of the Welsh game” after they were beaten 52-20 by Australia last Sunday. He’s not convinced it is in their best interest yet, and argues that his team are as good as they could be given the state Welsh rugby is in. He says that the success of the national team has always papered over the cracks in the national game. They were, for the large part of the last decade, the fifth, and most successful Welsh region. Their victories were achieved in spite of the Welsh system, rather than because of it.
There is truth in that. In the three years …
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