Biggar addresses giving away match deciding penalty
Wales captain Dan Biggar reflected on a “missed opportunity” after his team suffered an agonising 32-29 first-Test defeat against world champions South Africa in Pretoria.
Damian Willemse broke Welsh hearts with the final kick of a pulsating game at Loftus Versfeld after Biggar infringed through a deliberate knock-on.
For large parts of an epic contest, Wales looked destined to end 58 years of hurt by claiming a first victory over the Springboks in South Africa at the 11th attempt.
But despite wing Louis Rees-Zammit’s try double and a Dewi Lake touchdown – plus 14 points from Biggar – Wales were edged out.
They also had four players sin-binned, Biggar included, and were briefly down to 12 men during a frenzied finale after Alun Wyn Jones, Rees-Zammit and Rhys Carre received yellow cards from Georgian referee Nika Amashukeli.
Biggar, who missed the conversion of Lake’s try that hauled Wales back to 29-29, said: “I have been around the game long enough to have had some good moments, and that was a bit of a disappointing moment not to nail off.
“I thought the penalty at the end was a little bit harsh. The ball has just hit my hand, as opposed to me slapping it down. It’s the way it is.
“I don’t think anybody would have predicted the game would have worked out like that at midday today.
“The last thing I want to do is to come into a press conference and be brave losers. It was a definite missed opportunity.
“For us to put up a show in the first Test at altitude and against the world champions, there is no reason why we can’t get better next week.
“It is a Test match. We wanted to get in amongst it and not take a backward step. That is part of the game at the minute.
“If you stand off South Africa out here, you are going to get steam-rolled pretty quickly.
“I didn’t see any issue. They were as niggly and competitive as we were, but that was perfect for us – exactly what we wanted.
“That is exactly what you want from a Test match – you want it aggressive and abrasive. There was no dirty play. You shake hands afterwards and there is no issue.”
Beaten at home by Italy just three months ago, Wales were written off before they arrived in Pretoria, yet they went toe to toe with South Africa in front of a 50,000 capacity crowd.
Wales were humiliated 96-13 by South Africa on the same ground in 1998, but they head to Bloemfontein for next Saturday’s second Test after one of their finest performances in recent seasons.
Dan enjoyed this one?#RSAvWALpic.twitter.com/Y1rekEWP6p
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 2, 2022
South Africa scored tries through Bongi Mbonambi, Malcolm Marx and Cheslin Kolbe, in addition to a late penalty try, while Willemse kicked two conversions and a penalty and Elton Jantjies landed a penalty.
On the yellow cards, Wales head coach Wayne Pivac said: “It’s hard playing the world champions in their backyard 15 on 15, isn’t it? I thought we made a pretty good fist of that.
“We will have to go away and look at that, as we will always do. Four yellow cards is a pretty tough one to take, but that is how it panned out and unfortunately we didn’t quite get across the line.
“We set ourselves up to win the game, so we did a lot of very good things.
“South Africa will no doubt improve (in Bloemfontein), and hopefully we will improve. It sets itself up for a good second Test. You have got two teams that are highly-motivated.”
Wales prop Tomas Francis, meanwhile, looks set to miss the second encounter after leaving the field on a stretcher cart following a blow to his head in a tackle.
Pivac added: “He is OK in the changing room. He will go through the normal protocols.
“I would think he will definitely be out of the second Test, and we will have to wait and see whether or not he is available for the third.”
Comments on RugbyPass
late hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
4 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
24 Go to comments