Wales player ratings vs Springboks | Nations Championship 2026

Steve Tandy’s Wales side were handed a jarring reminder of where they currently find themselves on their journey to Rugby World Cup 2027 with a 43 – 0 loss in Durban to the Springboks.

Conceding their first try in the 4th minute to a rampaging Jasper Wiese, Wales had no answers to the physicality of the back-to-back World Champions. This score opened the floodgates for the home side who secured a bonus point fourth try before half-time.

Fixture

Nations Championship

South Africa

43 - 0

Full-time

Wales

All Stats and Data

Losing both the possession and territory battle, Tandy’s side showed plenty of grit to front up for long stretches before eventually succumbing to the power and pace of their hosts.

Coming close to a try in the 47th minute through Ellis Mee, Wales have 109 points unanswered to the Springboks in the last two meetings between the sides.

Here is how the Welsh players fared in Durban.

1. Rhys Carre – 4
Part of an early missed tackle on Jasper Wiese for the host’s opening try. At scrum time, he had to take his medicine with the Springbok pack in rampant form. In open play, he made his tackles and hit one nice running line but otherwise was pretty quite.

2. Dewi Lake – 6
As ever the skipper’s commitment to the cause cannot be questioned. Battling a green wave at the breakdown, Lake time and again stuck his head between the spokes at the breakdown which went some way to forcing the hosts into uncharacteristic errors. His removal at half-time only added to his side’s woes who dearly missed his physicality.

3. Dillon Lewis – 3
Utterly battered at the first scrum which set the tone of the afternoon for the experience tighthead. Whether it was fatigue from the pressure come through the scrum, he struggled to keep with the pace of the match in general. These issues creeped into his discipline where he conceded four penalties in the first half alone with one more in the second half.

4. Teddy Williams – 3
Relatively anonymous away from the breakdown such was the pace that his side were back tracking. Closing his account in the 53rd minute with 4 tackles made, 4 carries and 2 line-outs won perhaps says it all for the giant lock.

5. Adam Beard – 4
Matching his lock partner, Beard could not leave his mark on the contest. Carrying once and making 7 tackles was not quite the return he would’ve been targeting as a performance.

6. Alex Mann – 7
Caught napping for Cobus Reinach’s first half try albeit his scrum was creaking backwards on their own line. His inability to get off the scrum put Tomos Williams in a tough position to stop his opposite number from close range. Parking this moment, Mann was at the coal face all contest getting through a mountain of work with 19 tackles.

7. Jac Morgan – 7.5
The second party in the missed Wiese tackle will be disappointed with his effort on that one. This moment aside, Morgan was front and centre to Wales’s elongated defensive stands. Chopping down big South African ball carriers with textbook technique stunted several try scoring opportunities for the hosts. When it was all said and done, Morgan had got through a whopping 23 tackles.

8. Aaron Wainwright – 6.5
Industrious throughout as he once again was his side’s go-to carrier. His afternoon lasted all of 43 minutes when he was replaced for James Botham. In truth this felt more like preserving a key asset than a performance related removal.

9. Tomos Williams – 4
Couldn’t get to grips with Cobus Reinach as the Bok nice slipped over for the second try of the match. Kicking from the base is normally a real strength of the Lions’ nine but in Durban his radar was off with several kicks being saved by Bok handling errors.

10. Dan Edwards – 4
Pulled off a nice opening restart to give his side an early foothold in the Springbok half. Kicking from hand was a real strong point for the young pivot who found good distance with his touch finders. Defensively, he handled the big bodies that were coming down his channel all afternoon. One tackle he will however want back came 30 seconds into the second half when Jaco Williams slipped through his grasp to secure the bonus point.

11. Ellis Mee – 6.5
One uncharacteristic drop in the 29th minute aside he was solid un the high ball and chased hard whenever Wales went to the air. Coming close to getting his side on the board in the 47th minute, Mee was the clear standout in the Welsh backfield.

12. Ben Thomas – 6
Despite playing behind a backtracking pack, the centre routinely went looking for work. Sitting near the top of the carry and tackle charts, his intent could not be questioned even if the accuracy wasn’t always there.

13. Max Llewellyn – 2.5
Never given a chance to get into the contest such was his pack’s inability to secure set-piece ball. Departing at half-time having made 1 carry and 2 tackles (1 dominant) is far from the return he would’ve hoped for.

14. Louis Rees-Zammit – 4
Marshalled out of the contest from the off, the speedster did not touch the ball in the first half. The second half brought a couple of carrying opportunities unfortunately they were usually down a dark alley into multiple Springbok defenders.

15. Blair Murray – 4
Targeted in the air from the off and to his credit did relatively well. Where he struggled was when the Boks broke the line and he was last man defending the line. On the other side of the ball, he had very little opportunity to make an impact.

Replacements – 5
Ryan Elias and Nicky Smith replaced Dewi Lake and Rhys Carre respectively at half-time. Unfortunately for Elias his first action was to miss a tackle on Cobus Wiese in the build-up to Jaco Williams try. To the hooker’s credit he recovered incredibly well to up the physicality of his side’s attack. Of the backline replacements, Joe Hawkins was the pick of the bunch with a few big carries and a decent defensive shift considering what he was facing.