Tiger Tommy shows what can be done

SHANE WILLIAMS

WALES AND LIONS LEGEND

Rule No 1 in international sport – never disrespect your opponents! Whatever Jacques Nienaber thought he was doing making 14 changes to his starting line-up after a tight First Test, it backfired on him horribly and now he has to carry the mantle of being the first Springbok coach to lose to Wales on home soil.

There is an old adage that the most important game is your next game. Never mind trying to plan for next year when the World Cup comes around again. The best way to move forward is to keep on winning. The Springboks didn’t and if Wales can win the series in Cape Town you start to fear for Nienaber’s future.

Sir Gareth Edwards said he hoped Wales came out and gave the world champions a ‘tonking’ and, in many respects, that’s what they did. They stayed in the fight, never backed down, never stopped tackling and clung on for their one chance at glory.

To Josh Adams, the try scorer, and Gareth Anscombe, who converted off the touchline, will rightly go the glory, but back in the dressing room all the plaudits will have gone to Sam Wainwright. He was given a chance to go on tour when Leon Brown pulled out, got the nod for a place on the bench ahead of another rookie tight-head, Harri O’Connor, and had to come on when the magnificent Dillon Lewis picked up an arm injury with 14 minutes to go.

It was sink or swim time against another massive Springbok front row. He not only proudly kept his head above water, but sunk the home side as he stayed low and strong to earn a penalty and then locked out the final scrum of the game as the South Africans tried to win after the hooter for the second game in a row.

Take a bow young man, you proved the doubters wrong. You kept your cool, did what you had been asked and can now dine out on the fact you were one of the heroes of the first Welsh win in the home of the world champions

Let’s face it, it wasn’t a great spectacle as a game, but Wales did enough to deservedly see it out to set up a shot at a potential series win in Cape Town. Yes, that’s right, they can now win the three-match series against the Springboks if they can record another triumph at the weekend.

I’m sure the selection meeting this week will be different to last for Nienaber. There will be 14 changes again, I suppose, with the whole of his top team rushing back to try to save his blushes. For Wales, there will be nothing other than confidence coursing through the veins of each and every player and every member of the coaching team.

This is going to be a great week for them at sea level. They have already made history – now they can rock the rugby world! For those who were fearing three 50+ point scorelines, hang your heads in shame. Wayne Pivac has moved his squad forward from a dark place at the end of the Six Nations and this win ended a run of four defeats.

Welsh rugby returned to winning way in the most dramatic and impressive ways and now has plenty to look forward to. Coming after Ireland had won in New Zealand for the first time, and England had squared their series in Australia with a win in Brisbane, the win over the world champions by Wales was another huge boost for northern hemisphere rugby. Anything the Irish and English can do, Wales can do better!

“This game, like the last, could have gone down as a glorious near miss – it didn’t”

Time spent together is always the best way to galvanise a squad and the off-field dynamics have been as important as the on-field performances. Pivac has really got his feet under the table now in the middle of the four-year World cup cycle and Dan Biggar’s competitive approach is obviously infectious.

But what has impressed me has been the development of key areas of the Welsh game. After too much fiddling around with selection, Pivac has settled on a centre partnership, found his best front row combinations and gone back in time almost in his thinking in the back row.

Gareth Thomas, Ryan Elias and Dillon Lewis have had their detractors in the past, but their work rate is phenomenal. The physicality that Will Rowlands has brought to the Welsh pack playing alongside Adam Beard has been impressive, but the key figure in this side has been Tommy Reffell.

Why, oh, why didn’t they pick him earlier? With all due respect to Taine Basham and Jac Morgan, he was ahead of them at U18 and U20 level, was the first to get a regular slot in a senior side, albeit at Leicester Tigers, and has been one of the outstanding No.7s in European rugby all season.

The man of the match in Bloemfontein by a country mile, he has slotted seamlessly into the back row with Dan Lydiate and Taulupe Faletau. The two old warhorses look as though they’ve got their old mate Sam Warburton back in harness. Yes, ‘Tommy the Tiger’ does have that sort of talent, pedigree and potential!

I just hope that Cape Town isn’t a game too far for him after such a lengthy season at Leicester, where he helped them to win the Premiership title. If the tireless Welsh back row trio can maintain their standards of the past two games in the series decider then anything is possible.

One thing is certain, Nienaber will be bringing back Tommy’s Tigers team-mate Jasper Wiese for this weekend. That is going to be an interesting battle once again.

What is great is there is all to play for. This game, like the last, could have gone down as another glorious near miss. It didn’t. It hasn’t joined the litany of Welsh near-misses on foreign soil. Instead, it will go down in Welsh rugby history as a landmark occasion and result. What lies ahead for Dan Biggar and his men is to march on and record a victory that would rank alongside, or perhaps even exceed, the 1905, 1935 and 1953 home wins over the All Blacks

You get a shot at a Grand Slam every year and a World Cup title every four years. Cape Town will be a once in a lifetime experience for these Welsh players and I think they are good enough to make the most of the opportunity.