The unseen South Africa v Wales moments as Dan Biggar buries the hatchet and Alun Wyn orders fitness drills after final whistle

They say that what you do when nobody is watching is what really separates the good from the great.

It was interesting, then, to see how a handful of Wales’ experienced campaigners behaved during a brutal few hours at the Cape Town Stadium.

Wales landed in the Mother City battered and bruised. Head coach Wayne Pivac had asked virtually the same 15 players to back up three weeks in a row against the most physical side in world rugby, with two of the games at altitude. You could argue that not even the World Cup or Six Nations is this physically demanding. Rarely are players asked to compete against such high quality opposition so many times in 14 days.

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It took its toll with Gareth Anscombe the first to withdraw before the team even arrived at the stadium. He failed a fitness test late in the week after picking up a rib injury. Of course, he would have been well within his rights to arrive at the stadium and sit on the bench with all the other unused players.

Instead, the fly-half, who won the match for Wales last week, was out on the pitch during the warm-up, helping Dan Biggar and Rhys Patchell, who replaced him in the matchday 23, go through their kicking warm-up. There was no sulking here as he pitched in to do his bit for the team.

Then, as the teams left the field following the warm-up, Pivac threw his arm around Taulupe Faletau and gave a knowing look. One of his star players was about to pull out of the match with an injury to his side. The talismanic No.8 actually suffered the injury in the first Test two weeks ago but ‘gutsed it out’, to use Wayne Pivac’s words, in the second battle with the Boks.

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