Wales show effort but Steve Tandy still has plenty to fix

South Africa piled further misery onto Steve Tandy’s Wales with a thumping 43-0 win in Durban last Saturday.

It was the second time during the 2025/26 season that the Welsh national side were nilled against the reigning world champions, following a 73-0 loss at Principality Stadium last November.

While the Springboks weren’t on top form due to some handling inaccuracies, they were still able to score seven tries, with first-half scores from Jasper Wiese, Cobus Reinach and Jesse Kriel.

Debutant wing Jaco Williams crossed moments after half-time, before further tries from Herschel Jantjies, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Paul De Villiers.

The result at the HollywoodBets Stadium marked a ninth Test defeat in the first 12 matches for Tandy, who has been in position as Wales head coach for a year.

However, there are still plenty of questions to ask, particularly about the apparent lack of a game plan over the last couple of weeks.

But have Wales shown progress during the 12 games that Tandy has been involved in, and should there be any changes ahead of hosting Japan, New Zealand and Australia in November?

Can Welsh supporters expect more than effort, and have they improved over the last 12 months?

Tandy did say that he was disappointed with the result against the Springboks, but a common theme over the last year has been the effort made by his players, which the head coach mentioned again after the game in Durban.

"I am bitterly disappointed with the scoreline," said Tandy. "I commend the team around the effort, they stayed in the fight for large parts of the game.

"There's massive pride in our players, how hard they work and the effort they put in, up against the world champions."

But should there be more than just 'effort' from this Welsh side?

There have been improvements during Tandy's time in charge, with many believing wins against Italy and Fiji could mark the standard of a Welsh performance.

This was particularly the case when those victories came following encouraging displays against Scotland and Ireland in the Guinness Six Nations.

Yet a reality check against Argentina and the latest hammering against South Africa appears to have stalled any progress that was being made.

The harsh reality is that Wales aren’t creating enough when they are in possession, while teams are finding it easy to break down their current defensive system.

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Despite Peter Murchie joining as a new defence coach ahead of the summer, Wales missed 97 tackles during their three Nations Championship games.

They were often caught defending narrowly in games against Fiji and Argentina, before being blown away by the Springbok physicality last weekend.

This was particularly evident during the second score for the hosts, after a Welsh put-in at the scrum saw the South African front row almost drive Rhys Carre, Dewi Lake and Dillon Lewis over their own try line.

With the ball, the Welsh attack has largely struggled, especially when it comes to getting over the gainline.

In their win over Fiji in the Welsh capital, Tandy’s side only made 156 post-contact metres compared to 403 metres against the flying Fijians.

They made seven line breaks throughout the tournament. All three opposing teams made more than 10 line breaks during the 80 minutes they played against Wales.

It’s not good reading for Tandy or attack coach Matt Sherratt, who are adamant about continuing with a playmaking option at inside centre in either Joe Hawkins or Ben Thomas instead of a more physical carrier like Eddie James, who could provide some much-needed gainline.

It was understandable during Tandy's first few games that there would be a focus on performances instead of results.

But if results don’t pick up ahead of the 2027 Rugby World Cup and performances continue to stall as they have done over the last fortnight, then it could be a very troubling time in Australia.

How long will it take for Wales to compete with the top nations?

Wales currently don’t have the resources to compete with the top nations, and regardless of the current coaching setup or squad selection, this will be the case for years to come.

They sit 11th in the World Rugby rankings, which is a fair indication of where Wales are.

In the past, you would have expected the grudge matches for Wales to be against teams like South Africa, England and Australia when the national side was at the peak of its powers.

Now, Welsh supporters probably need to realise that those teams are Fiji, Japan and Italy due to the current landscape of the game.

Former Wales captain Ken Owens gave a brutal assessment of where they were following the loss to South Africa when on punditry duties for Welsh channel S4C.

"We have to be honest, that might be South Africa’s third team and we lost by 43 points," admitted Owens.

"The boys fought and there was effort, but that’s where we are at the moment and with the squad we’ve got. We haven’t got the depth like South Africa.

“But with the mistakes that South Africa were making, you just wanted to see something to hold onto and to put South Africa under pressure and we saw nothing and it was easy for South Africa.”

Are there similarities with Rassie’s South Africa?

Following their convincing win in Durban and a third successive game in a row where his side scored over 40 points, Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus attempted to offer hope to Welsh supporters.

The World Cup-winning coach mentioned how he met with Tandy in the week of the Test match and hoped fortunes would change.

"I had a braai with Steve and the management on Wednesday at the hotel and you can see they're a tight group," said Erasmus.

“I'm not going to say I feel sorry for them, because that'll be the wrong headline. Sometimes you have to get a little bit of belief. We were there in 2017.

"We were beaten 57-0 and so on. We targeted one big game we could win, and the belief came.

"That is what they need. One big game where they turn over a big team and people will start to believe.

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“I know Wales is a very proud nation, so I hope they get it right.”

The comparison to South Africa’s own struggles is an encouraging one for Wales, but it only goes so far.

With the exception of the Southern Kings entering voluntary liquidation in September 2020 and the movement of the “big 4” teams from Super Rugby to the United Rugby Championship, South Africa have never struggled to bring through quality players and coaches, and have always been competitive since Erasmus took over in 2018.

In Wales, that hasn’t been the case and, without trying to sound like a broken record, the uncertainty over the last 12 months hasn’t given Tandy a fair shot as head coach of the national team.

The Welsh Rugby Union are still hoping to reduce the number of teams by 2028, although they delayed revealing a plan to cut a team in June, with an announcement set for the coming weeks.

How can a head coach of any team fully prepare when players are facing such an uncertain future, while the governing body scrambles to put a plan in place that should have been done months ago?

With chair Richard Collier-Keywood departing from his post, questions have got to be asked regarding CEO Abi Tierney and Director of Rugby and Elite Performance Dave Reddin after another season of chaos in the Welsh game.