The Ospreys and Dragons are now departing South Africa and it caps an utterly miserable few weeks in the country for Welsh rugby.
Before we go any further, it is important to apply the caveat that only the two aforementioned Welsh sides had anything approaching full strength sides in their final games. The other six matches played by Welsh teams against South African opposition out there were largely without their international contingent. Nonetheless, the prevailing opinion is that while games might have been closer, the results were unlikely to have changed.
As such, the starkest of messages have been sent to the Welsh Rugby Union about the state of the professional game under their stewardship. It comes hot on the heels of Wales’ Six Nations campaign under Wayne Pivac ending in disaster against Italy and the numbers make for ugly reading.
We need to hear from the WRU, there are many questions that need answering
Across the eight matches played, South African sides walked away with the maximum five league points in all eight. Welsh teams left without a single point between them. Cumulatively, that’s 40-0. On average, South African sides scored 44 points per game, Welsh side scored 13, making the average margin of victory 31 points. That’s a chasm.
In other stats, South African sides managed an average of 552 metres per game, with Welsh teams replying with 280. To cut to the chase, their teams were rampant and they met little resistance. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to argue that any of the games were competitive for a full 80 minutes.
For those who go in for this sort of thing, the collective score was South Africa 351-106 Wales. Not pretty.
So there, in black and white, are the problems on the field but it is
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