Wales seek balanced approach to counter Bok muscle: 'We can't get caught playing Sevens'

One of the things the Springboks did well after they won the Rugby World Cup in Japan was to convince the world there's only one way to play them and that's to match them physically.

The British & Irish Lions, who toured here in the Covid-stricken winter of 2021, were hypnotised into mirroring the identical game plan that worked well for South Africa, although they had a glut of players that could offer something different.

The Wallabies during the Rugby Championship proved that there was more than one way to skin the Springbok when they shellacked the world champions in Australia with some hard running and scything offloading and phase play.

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Although the Lions landed the first punch in last year's first Test, they awoke too late that they could beat South Africa by running the ball among the backs and with some skilled link-forwards.

Wales, who are in SA for three Tests starting this weekend, brought a host of players back into the country who were part of the Lions series.

The challenge has now befallen Wayne Pivac's men, who are led by flyhalf Dan Biggar, the Lions' starting 10 for all three Tests, to either try to outmuscle the Boks or outsmart them.

Biggar, whose injury allowed Scottish flyhalf Finn Russell to run the show in the third Lions Test, said he'd been quizzed aplenty about whether Warren Gatland's tactics were off the mark - should they have gone with a more attacking mentality from the start?

"I've been asked this quite a lot and it's difficult [to answer]," Biggar reflected.

"When we won the first Test, everyone said it was brilliant and a masterstroke and we managed to outmuscle the Boks, beating them at their own