South Africa v Wales: Facts and stats

SOUTH AFRICA v WALES @ HOLLYWOODBETS KINGS PARK, DURBAN – KO 5.40PM (SAST) ON SATURDAY

REFEREE

Andrew Brace (Ireland)

Test debut: 10 June 2017 – Canada 0-13 Georgia

Tests as referee: 41

• Andrew Brace will referee this fixture for the second time, having been in the middle for South Africa’s 52-16 victory in a RWC 2023 warm-up match in Cardiff.

• South Africa have a W6, L1 record with Brace in the middle, their only defeat coming at the hands of England, 27-26 in the 2021 Autumn Nations Series.

• The Springboks have won their last five Tests with the Irish official in charge, the most recent being a 45-0 win over Italy a year ago.

• Wales, by contrast, are on a four-game losing run with Brace in the middle.

• This is the first time that Brace referees Wales since the 2023 loss to South Africa with their other defeats having all come in the Men’s Six Nations, against Scotland (14-10 in 2020 and 35-7 in 2023) and Italy (22-21 in 2022).

• Wales’ only win came back in June 2018, a 23-10 success over Argentina.

• This is Brace’s second Test of the year, having been in the middle for France’s 33-8 victory over Italy in Lille in the Men’s Six Nations.

HEAD-TO-HEAD

1906-2025 | Played 44 | South Africa 36 | Wales 7 | Draw 1

Points for: South Africa 1 230/Wales 683 (Avg. score: 28-16)

Highest score: South Africa 96 (96-13 on 27 June, 1998) / Wales 36 (36-38 on 6 November, 2004)

Biggest winning margin: South Africa 83 (96-13 on 27 June, 1998) / Wales 14 (27-13 on 26 November, 2016)

First met: 1 December, 1906 – South Africa 11-0 Wales – St Helen’s, Swansea 24

HEAD-TO-HEAD NOTES

• South Africa have won the last five meetings, dating back to Wales’ 13-12 victory at the Toyota Stadium in Bloemfontein in July 2022.

• Their average winning margin in that run is 46.5 points compared to 12 points overall.

• South Africa ran in 11 tries when the sides met last November, including a double from flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu among a personal haul of 28 points.

• There were further tries from props Gerhard Steenekamp and Wilco Louw, wings Ethan Hooker and Canan Moodie, No 8 Jasper Wiese, scrumhalf Morne van den Berg, centre Andre Esterhuizen and second-row Ruan Nortje.

• Replacement Eben Etzebeth also crossed before the second-row was shown a 79th-minute red card for gouging Wales flanker Alex Mann.

• It was the second worst defeat in Wales' history behind the 96-13 loss handed out by the Springboks in Pretoria in 1998.

• It was the first time Wales failed to score a point in Cardiff since 1967, when they lost to Ireland.

• Saturday’s game is only the second time that the teams have met at King’s Park in Durban, with the Springboks winning the only previous encounter there, 38-16 in 2014.

• Wales’ only win in South Africa in 13 matches was in Bloemfontein in 2022, when Gareth Anscombe converted Josh Adams’ try a minute from time to hand the visitors a 13-12 victory.

TEAM NOTES

• South Africa top the southern hemisphere standings on points difference from New Zealand, with both sides having picked up maximum points from the first two rounds.

• Last weekend’s 42-28 win over Scotland was South Africa’s 10th Test win in a row, dating back to the 24-17 defeat by New Zealand at Eden Park in the 2025 Rugby Championship.

• It is South Africa’s best run under Rassie Erasmus and the most consecutive wins since they achieved 13 in a row between 2007-08.

• South Africa have only lost two of their last 20 Tests (38-22 v Australia at Ellis Park in August and 24-17 v New Zealand).

• With the win over Scotland, South Africa have become the first team since England (2002/03) to beat every Men’s Six Nations and Rugby Championship team in a 12-month period.

• South Africa are the most clinical team in the tournament, scoring an average of 5.8 points for each of their entries into the opposition 22.

• South Africa have been the fastest team out of the blocks, scoring the most points (31) in the first 20 minutes of matches.

• Six different players crossed the whitewash against Scotland – Embrose Papier, Evan Roos, Elrigh Louw, Damian Willemse, Zach Porthen and Jesse Kriel.

• South Africa managed to keep Scotland at bay when Ben-Jason Dixon was sin-binned at the start of the second half.

• However, as a whole, South Africa conceded four tries to Scotland for the first time in history and the second-most points.

• Kriel is the only player to have scored multiple tries (two), having also dotted down in the 45-21 win over England in round one.

• Thomas du Toit, Cheslin Kolbe, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Grant Williams, Malcolm Marx and Dixon got the others.

• South Africa warmed up for the Nations Championship with an 80-31 win over the Barbarians in Gqeberha on 20 June.

• South Africa scored 572 points and 81 tries in 2025, averaging 40.9 points and 5.8 tries per game, a significant improvement on their 2024 match average of 34.6 points and 4.4 tries.

• South Africa moved to the top of the World Rugby Men’s Rankings again last September when they inflicted a record 43-10 defeat on New Zealand in Wellington.

• Feinberg-Mngomezulu was the second-highest point scorer in world rugby in 2025, amassing 120, which put him just two behind Japan’s Seungsin Lee.

• Feinberg-Mngomezulu was also the second-highest try scorer, his tally of nine only bettered by France’s Louis Bielle-Biarrey (10).

• The flyhalf’s tally of 37 points against Argentina at King’s Park last September broke the Springbok record for most individual points in a Test, previously held by Percy Montgomery (35).

• South Africa claimed back-to-back Rugby Championship titles for the first time when they beat Argentina 29-27 at Allianz Stadium in Twickenham on 4 October.

• The win over Los Pumas left South Africa and New Zealand tied on 19 points at the top of the standings, but the Springboks finished top as their points difference was +57 to the All Blacks’ +8.

• Both teams conceded 151 points, the joint fewest in the tournament, but South Africa’s tournament-high tally of 208 points scored saw them reclaim the trophy.

• The Springboks’ 27 tries were also the most in the competition.

SQUAD NOTES

• Four of the 10 changes Rassie Erasmus has made to his starting XV for the match against Wales will be debutants – Jaco Williams, Vusi Moyo, Ruben van Heerden and Carlu Sadie.

• The 20-year-old Moyo will become the third flyhalf in three games for the Springboks and will be joined by fellow 20-year-old Williams in the backline.

• The Sharks pair, both members of South Africa’s World Rugby Junior World Championship 2025 winning team, will make their debuts at their home ground at Hollywoodbets Kings Park.

• The five players to retain their starting berth are captain Pieter-Steph du Toit, fellow flanker Paul de Villiers, second-row Cobus Wiese, centre Jesse Kriel and fullback Aphelele Fassi.

• Kriel will bring up 90 Tests for the Springboks this weekend.

COACH NOTES

• Erasmus returned to the Springbok head coach role in February 2024, signing a contract that takes him through to the end of 2027.

• The win over Les Bleus at the Stade de France on 8 November was his 50th as head coach.

• He has overseen 29 Tests in his second spell, winning 25 and losing four (86.2%).

• Overall, he has been in charge of 54 Tests (head coach/director of rugby) and has moved past Jake White as the Springboks’ most experienced coach during the Nations Championship.

• Erasmus was the mastermind behind the Springboks’ back-to-back Rugby World Cup successes of 2019 and 2023 – as head coach and then director of rugby.

• He also led South Africa to their first Rugby Championship title in five years in 2024 and a clean sweep of victories in the Autumn Nations Series that followed.

• His first reign in charge started with a defeat to Wales in Washington DC, in June 2018.

• Erasmus won 36 caps for South Africa as a back-row forward from 1997-2001.

TEAM NOTES

• Wales are fifth in the northern hemisphere standings on five points, having started with a win and a loss.

• Wales have the lowest match average for carries (109) and have made the second-lowest metres (266.5) and line-breaks (11) in the competition to date.

• Wales have kept the opposition scoreless in the final quarter of matches, the only team to do so, along with Ireland.

• All of Wales’ tries in the 35-21 loss to Argentina were scored by front-row forwards in hooker Dewi Lake and props Rhys Carré and Ben Warren, who came on for his Test debut.

• Wales went into the game having achieved back-to-back wins for the first time since RWC 2023, with both victories coming against higher-ranked sides in Italy and Fiji.

• Three of Wales’ six tries against Fiji in round one came from mauls, with Carré and Ryan Elias crossing for the ‘Front Row Union’.

• Captain Jac Morgan bagged a pair, with Josh Adams and Eddie James also getting their names on the scoresheet.

• Wales avoided a third consecutive whitewash in the Guinness Men’s Six Nations by beating Italy in the final round in March.

• It ended a six-match losing run in all competitions and 15 in a row in the championship.

• Previous to the 31-17 victory, Wales’ last Men’s Six Nations win was a 29-17 win over the Azzurri in Rome on 11 March, 2023.

• Wales conceded the most points (172) and tries (26) in the championship.

• Some 100 of the 172 points they conceded (58%) came in the second half of matches.

• Wales had the fewest entries into the opposition 22 (31 – eight fewer than the fifth-ranked Italy), while their red zone was raided more than any other team (56), with the opposition scoring an average of three points for each visit.

• Wales received the most yellow cards (seven), including four in their opening game against England.

• The four yellow cards Wales received against England (Nicky Smith, Lake, Ben Thomas and Taine Plumtree) were the joint most any team has been shown in a Men’s Six Nations game (also Italy v France in 2002).

• It was the first time they’d had four players sin-binned in a Test since they were beaten 32-29 by South Africa in Pretoria in July 2022.

• Dan Edwards and Sam Costelow didn’t miss a kick at goal between them (13/13), while Jarrod Evans was one from two, giving Wales the best overall goal-kicking success rate in the championship (93.33%).

• Wales ended a record run of 18 straight defeats – the worst run of any of the leading nations – when they squared the two-match series with Japan in July 2025 with a 31-22 victory in Kobe.

• It was Wales’ first victory in 644 days, dating back to the pool-stage defeat of Georgia at RWC 2023.

SQUAD NOTES

• Teddy Williams, one of six changes to the Wales starting line-up, last started a Test against Japan in July 2025, the same Test that Tommy Reffell was last seen in a Welsh jersey.

• Reffell has been named on the bench against the Springboks, having been left out of Steve Tandy’s Quilter Nations Series and Men’s Six Nations squads.

• Captain Lake has overcome an injury scare to lead the team out in Durban and continue his ever-present starting record under Tandy.

• Freddie Thomas is named on the bench after only flying out to South Africa earlier in the week as injury cover.

• With Kane James joining Warren in making his debut against Argentina, Rhys Barratt, Harrison Keddie. Ryan Woodman and Bryn Bradley are the only uncapped players left in this Nations Championship squad.

COACH NOTES

• Tandy was named as the new Wales coach in July 2025 and has a P11, W3, L8 record.

• Born in Tonmawr, Port Talbot, Tandy is the first homegrown permanent head coach of the men's Test side since Gareth Jenkins in September 2007, although fellow Welshmen Nigel Davies, Robin McBryde and Rob Howley have taken interim charge since then.

• He joined the WRU from Scotland, where he had been the defence coach of the men’s national team since December 2019.

• Tandy started his coaching journey at Tonmawr RFC, then Welsh Premiership side Bridgend Ravens for two years from 2010, before becoming head coach of his former club Ospreys, aged just 32.

• He led Ospreys to the PRO12 title in 2012 and remained with the region until 2018.

• His next appointment was as defence coach of the NSW Waratahs in Super Rugby and then Scotland came calling.

• In 2021, Tandy was a member of the British and Irish Lions coaching team (defence).

• Tandy played, as a flanker, for Neath from 1998-2003, playing 40 games and for the Ospreys from 2003-10, making 102 appearances.

• His full-time coaching staff includes assistant coaches Matt Sherratt (attack), Danny Wilson (forwards), Peter Murchie (defence) and Paul James (scrum). He also has Leigh Halfpenny as an interim kicking coach for the Southern Hemisphere Series in July.

DID YOU KNOW…?

Erasmus began his record-breaking reign as Springboks head coach in a 22-20 defeat to Wales in Washington DC in 2018.

WORLD RUGBY RANKINGS PERMUTATIONS

• South Africa cannot improve their rating with victory over Wales, the lowest-ranked team in the Nations Championship in 12th. This is because of the 17.58-point differential between the teams.

• The Springboks again put their No 1 ranking on the line, although potentially only if they lose by more than 15 points.

• A smaller margin would be sufficient if New Zealand beat Ireland by more than 15 points but the Irish must triumph by that margin and have the Springboks lose by it against Wales.

• Wales cannot fall any lower than 12th this weekend with Georgia unable to gain enough points by beating Chile in the World Rugby Nations Cup to catch them.

• However, a draw would be enough to lift Wales back into the top 10 if Italy lose by more than 15 points. A win could take them to ninth if Fiji also lose to Scotland.

Springbok starting XV: 15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Jaco Williams, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse; 10 Vusi Moyo, 9 Cobus Reinach; 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit (capt), 6 Paul de Villiers; 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 Cobus Wiese; 3 Carlu Sadie, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Gerhard Steenekamp. Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 Ben-Jason Dixon, 20 Marco van Staden, 21 Herschel Jantjies, 22 Manie Libbok, 23 Damian Willemse.

Wales starting XV: 15 Blair Murray, 14 Louis Rees-Zammit, 13 Max Llewellyn, 12 Ben Thomas, 11 Josh Adams; 10 Dan Edwards, 9 Tomos Williams; 8 Aaron Wainwright, 7 Jac Morgan, 6 Alex Mann; 5 Adam Beard, 4 Teddy Williams; 3 Dillon Lewis, 2 Dewi Lake (capt), 1 Rhys Carre. Replacements: 16 Ryan Elias, 17 Nicky Smith, 18 Ben Warren, 19 Freddie Thomas, 20 Tommy Reffell, 21 James Botham, 22 Reuben Morgan-Williams, 23 Joe Hawkins.

South Africa v Wales @ Hollywoodbets Kings Park, Durban 5.40pm

Referee: Andrew Brace (IRFU)

Assistant Referees: Pierre Brousset (FFR), James Doleman (NZR)

Television Match Official: Glenn Newman (NZR)

Split Screen/FPRO: Matteo Liperini (FIR)