Wales dream dashed as South Africa rediscover form in Cape Town decider

World champions South Africa reserved their best for last as they ended Wales’ dream of a Test series triumph by winning the decider 30-14 in Cape Town.

The Springboks’ head coach, Jacques Nienaber, recalled eight of South Africa’s 2019 World Cup-winning team after Wales levelled the series with a historic first away win over South Africa seven days ago. It worked a treat as South Africa took the series 2-1 through tries from Handré Pollard, Bongi Mbonambi and Siya Kolisi, with Pollard kicking three conversions and three penalties for a 20-point haul.

Wales battled hard throughout and offered stoic defensive resistance, but they could only muster a Tommy Reffell try and three penalties from captain Dan Biggar as they missed out on matching series success for Ireland in New Zealand and England in Australia.

Just four months after losing at home to Italy in the Six Nations, Wales will rightly view the tour as being successful in so many ways, particularly with one eye on next year’s World Cup. They also made history through their victory in Bloemfontein that saw them become the first Wales team to beat the Springboks in South Africa.

Ultimately, though, South Africa had too much in the tank for a Wales team that gave it everything and generated plenty of optimism for Wayne Pivac as the World Cup countdown continues.

Wales suffered a late blow when No 8 Taulupe Faletau was ruled out after the warm-up, suffering an injury to his side, with Josh Navidi replacing him and Taine Basham joining the substitutes.

Gareth Anscombe – Wales’ second Test match-winner when he kicked a late touchline conversion – missed out because of a rib injury, so Rhys Patchell took over on the bench, and one enforced change in the starting lineup saw