Africa-Press – South-Africa. If there was one enduring facet in the Springboks’ supremely inaccurate but well-earned 32-29 win against Wales in the first Test at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, it was the endeavour of the forwards that was encapsulated by Elrigh Louw.
The debutant wasn’t overawed by the catch-up rugby they had to play for the better part of the game, but when Louw was on the field, the Bok physicality went up a few notches.
Jasper Wiese was the deserved man-of-the-match, but Louw’s touches were very noticeable. One of them was a run that tore through the Welsh defence but was stopped just before the line.
READ | Bok ratings: Willemse, Willie shine as attacking masters – old and new – compensate for stalwarts
The Boks ended up scoring from that flowing movement through Cheslin Kolbe, but after the match, Louw joked about how they miraculously denied him a try on his Test debut.
“I had one thing in mind and that was to dot the ball down on my debut, but I think they tied my shoelaces quite well,” Louw said.
“It wasn’t meant to be, but fortunately, Cheslin scored in the corner.”
Louw, who is the second Springbok from Hoerskool Transvalia after 1995 Rugby World Cup-winning captain Francois Pienaar, was part of the Boks’ famed ‘Bomb Squad’ that rescued a 15-point half-time deficit to win by three points.
Louw said he was honoured to be part of the group while also trying to deliver on the mandate issued to him by the coaching staff.
RECAP| Springboks edge Wales 32-29 after Loftus thriller
“It’s a great honour to be associated with that word. We know precisely what is required of us,” Louw said.
“It was my first game and I knew that I really needed to get stuck in and work hard. I also knew what the coaches expected from me.”
While the benching delivered a rousing performance, they were also culpable in conceding a soft 77th-minute try when Wales’ replacement hooker Dewi Lake crashed over from a rolling maul.
That try started from Wiese fumbling the kick-off from the penalty try the Boks had scored earlier, from where Wales recycled the ball smartly.
Welsh captain Dan Biggar missed the subsequent conversion, but Louw said their soft moment was unacceptable.
“We’ll have to have a look to see what went wrong. We’ll have to look at what we did and what we didn’t do,” Louw said.
“We’ll definitely have to work on that because as a pack, conceding that try in the way that we did was unacceptable.”
For More News And Analysis About South-Africa Follow Africa-Press
