South Africa dominate Wales with 73-0 win

Wales 0-73 South Africa, Principality Stadium

South Africa finished the European tour on a high as they blanked out Wales with a 73-0 victory in Cardiff on Saturday.

The Springboks, who claimed the Rugby Championship earlier in the year completed a clean sweep for the second successive time while also becoming the first team since 1967 to prevent Wales from scoring in Cardiff.

The Boks opened their account in the 9th minute as Gerhard Steenekamp powered over from 3m distance and Feinberg-Mngomezulu kicked the conversion to make it 0-7. The visitors doubled their tally in the 13th minute as Feinberg-Mngomezulu created space for Ethan Hooker to score their second try.

There was no respite whatsoever for Wales as Jasper Wiese dotted down at the back of a powerful scrum around the half hour mark before a massive carry from Andre Esterhuizen set up Morne van den Berg over the line for their fourth try as the opening half completed with a 0-28 lead for Rassie Erasmus' men.

South Africa extended their momentum into the second half as Wilco Louw darted over and shortly Taine Plumtree was yellow carded for offside infringement. With a player advantage on their side, the Boks continued to dominate further with Feinberg-Mngomezulu raced 30m to the line in the 46th minute and Canan Moodie joined the scoring three minutes later to take South Africa's tally to 0-49.

Esterhuizen, who continued to dominate the Welsh defence finally got rewarded scoring the eighth try for the Boks before Aaron Wainwright became the second player from the home side to be yellow carded for dangerous tackle on Feinberg-Mngomezulu.

As Wales looked clueless, South Africa continued to press on with Feinberg-Mngomezulu completed his second try in the 63rd minute before Ruan Nortje and Eben Etzebeth scored further tries to extend their lead to 0-73.

Nevertheless, South Africa's victory was marred with a red card to Etzebeth in the closing stage for gouging Wales flanker Alex Mann.

Team line up:

Wales: Blair Murray; Ellis Mee, Joe Roberts, Joe Hawkins, Rio Dyer; Dan Edwards, Kieran Hardy; Gareth Thomas, Dewi Lake, Keiron Assiratti, Ben Carter; Rhys Davies, Taine Plumtree, Alex Mann, Aaron Wainwright.

Reserves: Brodie Coghlan, Danny Southworth, Chris Coleman, James Ratti, Morgan Morse, Reuben Morgan-Williams, Callum Sheedy, Ben Thomas.

South Africa: Damian Willemse; Ethan Hooker, Damian de Allende, Andre Esterhuizen, Canan Moodie; Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Morne van den Berg; Gerhard Steenekamp, Johan Grobbelaar, Wilco Louw; Jean Kleyn, Ruan Nortje; Siya Kolisi, Franco Mostert, Jasper Wiese.

Reserves: Bongi Mbonambi, Zachary Porthen, Asenathi Ntlabakanye, Eben Etzebeth, Marco van Staden, Ben-Jason Dixon, Kwagga Smith, Cobus Reinach