Springboks overcome spirited Wales to kick start 2011 Rugby World Cup title defence on high note
The defending Springboks held back Wales charge in order to register their first win in the 2011 Rugby World Cup (RWC). Both teams were playing in a Pool D encounter of the 2011 RWC at Westpac Stadium, Wellington on Sunday, September 11.
Springboks started the match strongly but the final score of 17 – 16 reflect how closely the match was contested.
Following their poor performances and a series of injuries, Boks enjoyed a dream start to their title defence campaign, as they dominated the earlier proceedings of the game. They were first to register points on the scorecard courtesy of their fullback
Frans Steyn’s second minute try. Their fly half, Morne Steyn, followed with his conversion to give the world champions a seven point’s lead.
Wales were able to cut down the lead to four points following their fullback James Hook’s 9th minute penalty.
Springboks again stretched their lead to seven point courtesy Morne Steyn’s 18th minute penalty. Wales regained the ball and territory possession as they started to control the proceedings of the game. Hook’s 32nd minute penalty pegged
the lead back to four points.
Both teams left the first-half with a score of 10 – 6.
Wales carried forward their first-half momentum and started the second-half strongly. Wales scored 10 points within the span of 15 minutes of the second-half. For Wales, Hook scored his third penalty of game in the 50th minute.
Minutes later, Wales’ number eight, Toby Faletau, scored their first try in the 53rd minute of the game to put Wales in the lead. Hook followed with his conversion to put the Welsh in the lead by six points.
Wales were enjoying both ball and territory possession as the Springboks found it hard to reestablish their control over the game.
However, after the arrival of Bismarck du Plessis and Francois Hougaard, things started to change for the South Africans. Hougaard scored the second try in the match for the Boks in the 65th minute, which was followed by Steyn’s conversion to
put the world champions into the lead again.
Hook missed an easy penalty, which was followed by Springboks impressive display of the rugby skills in which they denied Wales from scoring in the last 10 minutes of the game.
In the crucial last 10 minutes of the low scoring contests, Springboks were able to retain 56 percent ball possession and 63 percent of territory possession.
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