Views from Cardiff on Saturday’s Test match

Warren Gatland has demanded that Wales make a swift recovery from their opening Test “humiliation” by restoring their damaged pride.

Gatland and his coaching lieutenants on Sunday began the task of restoring the morale shattered by South Africa’s crushing 43-17 victory at Vodacom Park.

The quiet confidence that emanated from the Welsh camp in the build-up was clearly misplaced as an experimental Springbok side hardly broke sweat in humbling the Grand Slam winners.

It was an anti-climatic start to a series billed as the best of Europe against the world champions, and the respect Gatland craved from the hosts will not be forthcoming for at least a week.

And as a gauge of Wales’ position in the world game, the head coach’s first defeat since taking charge in January points to a work in progress.

But Gatland is confident that his players have the character to restore their reputations in Saturday’s second Test in Pretoria.

“As a coach picking the team up after this, it’s an exciting challenge,” he said.

“I’m disappointed and I know the players are gutted. We’re pretty proud of what we’ve achieved in the last six months but yesterday was a humiliation for us.

“Now we can either throw in the towel and walk away or accept the challenge of working hard and improving in time for next week.

“Knowing the players and coaches as I do, I’m sure we’ll respond in the right way.”

Jamie Roberts and Shane Williams ran in fine tries to give Wales some respite from the Springbok onslaught before a disappointingly small crowd of 21 500 in Bloemfontein.

But at times it was men against boys as the hosts’ size, pace and power ensured that Wales failed to register their first Test victory in South Africa.

The magnificent Conrad Jantjes, Jean de Villiers, Pierre Spies and Percy Montgomery crossed for the Springboks with the flawless Butch James kicking 23 points.

“We’ve come a long way in the last six months. We keep saying we’re going to be a good side in the next couple of years,” said Gatland.

“To do that we need to play the best teams in the world as often as we can. Playing South Africa will take a lot out of us.

“We face the three Tri-Nations teams in November which will be great.

“You only get better by playing the best and if we could come up against South Africa four weeks in a row I’d take that.

“It would help us improve and we’ll learn a huge amount from yesterday.”

Most of the Welsh team had not played for over a month and their rustiness was evident amid a raft of errors and poor discipline that handed James points on a plate.

Assistant coach Shaun Edwards partly blames the lay-off for his side’s shortcomings and is eager for the series to resume at Loftus Versfeld.

“The fact we had not played for five weeks was an issue going into the game. We have to be honest and say we looked very rusty,” he said.

“They are world champions and the one thing that South African rugby always has is amazing physicality.

“However, the one thing that we did not expect us to be doing was to drop simple passes.

“Five weeks off has not done us any good at all. I’d like to think we can give better account of ourselves next week.

“We’d like to think we can get more respect. I would like to think that we can give them a better game next week.

“Whether we beat them is a different issue. When you give them 18 turnovers it is very difficult.

“Maybe you can do that against an average team but when you do that against the world champions in their own backyard you are going to commit suicide.

“We need to sort the line-out and in the defence there are a couple of issues.

“The encouraging thing for me is that we play them against next week.”

Up coming Springbok Tests

June
14 South Africa v Wales Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria 15:00
21 South Africa v Italy Newlands, Cape Town 15:00

July
5 New Zealand v South Africa Westpac Stadium, Wellington 09:35
12 New Zealand v South Africa Carisbrook Stadium, Dunedin 09:35
19 Australia v South Africa Subiaco Oval, Perth 11:05

August
9 South Africa v Argentina Ellis Park, Johannesburg
16 South Africa v New Zealand Newlands Stadium, Cape Town 15:00
23 South Africa v Australia The Absa Stadium Durban 15:00
30 South Africa v Australia Ellis Park, Johannesburg 15:00