The main topic of debate in Wales this week has not been Saturday’s meeting between two middle ranked teams at the Principality Stadium to round off the autumn international series, but the behaviour of some spectators at the ground in the last month who have taken regular beer and toilet trips to the annoyance of those around them.
A typical reply to those who complain about constantly being inconvenienced while play is going on is that it is an occasion rather than a rugby match: being there matters more than watching what is happening on the field. Tickets used to be sold exclusively through rugby clubs, but a growing corporate market has changed the nature of crowds, and not only those in Cardiff. A growing number of those who would rather stay in their seats than waste time queueing for overpriced beer are opting to do so in their armchairs, saving on ticket prices and no longer victim to kick-off times that suit broadcasters rather than fans.
The bars at the ground stay open during the match, highlighting how the international game is now primarily about money. Which is why Wales are playing South Africa after the close of the November international window: the visitors will receive £750,000 for postponing their holiday by a week while the Welsh Rugby Union, even though the game is not a sell-out, will bank more than £2m to help pay for its national dual contract scheme. It is a game neither union wants but both need.
Both teams are considerably below strength through injuries and the non-availability of players based in England and France, with the exception of the Wales No8 Taulupe Faletau who negotiated full international release when he signed for Bath even though the club knew it was breaking Premiership Rugby’s rule on not providing players for countries other than England outside the official window, not bothered by the trifling prospect of a fine.
Both sides have struggled since meeting in the quarter-finals of the 2015 World Cup at Twickenham. A moment of inspiration from the scrum-half Fourie du Preez near the end won a relentlessly grinding encounter for the Springboks that marked the death rattle of a style of play the two teams had become renowned for: do not think, feel.
If the Springboks have rallied this year after a shocking 2016 by the end if which they paid more than a passing resemblance to a tier-two nation, their victories have come against teams below them in the rankings. They pushed New Zealand in Cape Town but only after being crushed 57-0 in Albany: like Wales, they are the victims of structural problems which should have been addressed long ago, but coaches invariably take the blame.
The South Africa head coach, Allister Coetzee, has started from the beginning this year, largely picking players who are based in the country and, with a couple of exceptions, ignoring the legions based in Europe and Japan. In the 2011 World Cup, the Springboks had the most experienced team in the world; now they have one of the rawest and look light in a number of areas, not least scrum-half.
Coetzee, who continues to have his future questioned despite the uplift in results, at least has resources to fall back on, if they have won 30 caps. Wales will from next season not consider players who are not with one of their four regions if they have not reached 60 caps. It is presumably why the scrum-half Rhys Webb is on the bench on Saturday afternoon having recovered from the head injury he sustained against New Zealand last weekend.
Webb is joining Toulon next season, well short of the 60-cap threshold and so will not be part of the 2019 World Cup. Aled Davies, the third choice, starts at scrum-half with Gareth Davies injured, and the upside for the Wales head coach Warren Gatland of having 16 players unavailable is that it gives him the chance to assess his depth. The downside is that it comes at a time when he is trying to refine Wales’s attacking strategy after years of defeats, often by a narrow margin, to the major sides: the lack of attention paid to the lower levels has spawned poor skill levels.
The 2015 World Cup is a classic example. Losses in successive weeks to Australia and South Africa followed a familiar pattern: abundant possession and opportunity but a lack of composure and basic skills confining them mainly to kicks at goal. Gatland has tried to rectify that by having a playmaker at inside-centre, but Owen Williams is back at Gloucester.
Hadleigh Parkes, a 30-year-old from New Zealand who qualifies for his adopted country on Saturday, takes Williams’s place. Although he has played at fly-half, he is more a centre who can play at full-back and on the wing. He will add ballast to the midfield on a day when both sides might forget about the future to secure a needed victory and go back to what they are most comfortable with.
The Springboks have, after losing heavily in Dublin at the start of their tour, gone back to their pack and with Wales’s problems in the tight five, will expect to dominate the set pieces and use the boot of the fly-half Handre Pollard to secure position. Wales’s No10 Dan Biggar is also likely to give the ball some air with South Africa preferring that they attack from deep.
An encounter that has little relevance in terms of the world rankings does not promise to be pretty on a day when spectators may need to fortify themselves with something stronger than beer.
