Depleted South Africa ease to 41-13 win over Wales

LONDON : A much-changed South Africa scored five tries to defeat Wales 41-13 in a one-off test at Twickenham on Saturday in their first fixture since they lifted the Rugby World Cup in France nine months ago.

It was a far from polished performance from the Springboks as they kicked off their international season.

South Africa's inaccuracy kept a scrambling Wales in the contest for an hour before they pulled clear as they introduced experience off the bench to wrestle control of the game.

Centre Jesse Kriel, wings Makazole Mapimpi and Edwill van der Merwe, and hooker Bongi Mbonambi all crossed for tries to go with a penalty score, while Wales managed to breach South Africa’s line once through captain Dewi Lake.

The depleted Springboks had just five players that started the World Cup final win over New Zealand in their starting line-up with Saturday’s match falling outside the international window. Wales were also missing a number of players for the same reason.

"We have only been together for two weeks, so it is a good start for us but there are a lot of things to work on," Springbok captain Pieter-Steph du Toit said. "This has given us good preparation for the Ireland series over the next few weeks."

The Springboks scored their first try inside four minutes as Kriel cantered over before they were awarded a penalty score as Wales illegally stopped the maul.

Warren Gatland's side received two yellow cards in as many minutes for wing Rio Dyer and number eight Aaron Wainwright as they were forced to infringe to stop the Springbok barrage.

But South Africa could not add to their score while Wales were down to 13 men as they lost continuity.

Wales scored their opening try from a messy line-out that saw Lake barge his way over the