Kolisi admits Wales got under Boks' skin, Biggar asks: 'Did people expect us to roll out red carpet?'

Tempers threatened to boil over during the first Test between the Springboks and Wales at Loftus on Saturday.

The hosts shaded a tough contest that they might have lost or even drawn were it not for Damian Willemse's last-gasp winning penalty kick.

The bulk of the 32-29 contest was characterised by Welsh ill-discipline – they received four yellow cards in the game – and a lot of argy-bargy.

READ | Willemse sparks second-half magic to save Boks from embarrassing first home defeat against Wales

Players were at each other's throats in a manner not too dissimilar to how the British & Irish Lions series played out here in SA last year.

Springbok captain Siya Kolisi admitted that the visitors, who held an 18-3 lead at the break, got under their skin, which threw their focus from their core strengths, like the maul, which couldn't kick start.

Kolisi, who is usually a calming influence, also traded words with his opponents during the game.

"Those things happen in a game. They got under our skin," said Kolisi.

"Things weren't going our way in the first half. We couldn't get the maul going and we did a couple of things out of character.

"They did what they wanted to do in the first half. Everything was going according to their terms. But there wasn't panic.

"We didn't feel at any stage that there was no way we're going to come back into the game. We know what we're capable of and we stuck to it. We went maul after maul until [we scored]."

Wales captain Dan Biggar, who got sin-binned in the first half, said it was part of their plan to disrupt the Springboks psychologically.

Georgian referee Nika Amashukeli had to intervene numerous times to stop the players from potentially crossing the line.

Biggar also got into it a couple of times with Bok