Comment: Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer

Cape Town – An imperfect performance, and then some. But South Africa are halfway to the Grand Slam ... that’s what matters most.

Wales threw the kitchen sink -- plus the fridge, oven and bin! – at the Springboks in a frenzied assault just ahead of and then significantly after the hooter, but the tourists’ defences somehow held for a heart-stopping 29-25 win at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday.

The Boks were outscored 3-2 in tries and owed a little bit, too, to the relative kindness of southern hemisphere referee Steve Walsh for ending on the right side of this ding-dong tussle – some of his decisions significantly irked the crowd.

Also to keep in mind was that the hosts were forced into two late team changes ahead of kick-off, including the loss of their normally destructive loosehead prop Gethin Jenkins, while little wing wizard Shane Williams did not appear after halftime because of a wrist injury in an unceremonious dumping from Frans Steyn.

But give the World Cup champion Boks their due: they clawed back from a particularly wretched, disjointed first-half display to produce what BBC lead commentator Eddie Butler branded “sensational rugby at times” in the second period to tilt the scales.

And I think this slightly fortuitous victory actually strengthened, rather than weakened, their psychological hold over these opponents, bearing in mind that they will meet again in pool play at the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand.

Somehow Wales just don’t seem to be able to close the deal against the Boks in tight home battles of late, and the prospect of meeting next on neutral turf south of the equator, rather than before their passionate Cardiff faithful, cannot be especially appealing right now.

Three times the Boks had found themselves 11 points behind on Saturday, although the last occasion was very soon after the break and from that point onward the visitors generally shook off their lethargy and indecisiveness to strike back and seize a grip.

There was a sublime period of 10 or 15 minutes when Victor Matfield’s men suddenly produced a heady cocktail of power and precision to cross for two tries which altered the complexion of the game.

It was fitting that substitute loose forward Willem Alberts and Matfield himself were the scorers – South Africa looked a different team once the hulking Sharks player had replaced Deon Stegmann in the 46th minute, while the veteran captain produced his second strong personal display on the trot.

The fact that Pierre Spies was named man-of-the-match somehow summed up the broadly contrasting nature of this Bok showing: the Bulls No 8 made some glaring defensive errors in the pallid first half but there was no doubting his commitment, work-rate and physicality as South Africa finally mustered more consistent heads of steam when it mattered most.

South Africa will know that there is plenty to work to do ahead of the assault on Murrayfield for game three, even if Scotland shape up as the “easiest” hurdle of the venture next weekend. (The Scots were leaking tries like a burst water main to the All Blacks as this was penned.)

While their defence was awesomely resolute during the last-ditch Welsh bombardment – pocket battleship Gio Aplon take a special bow - it was also horribly shown up at times when the home outfit put the ball through the hands with enthusiasm and amassed good numbers in open-side raids.

Certainly fresh attention needs to be given to alignment and organisation in that department, even if actual relish for the task and body strength is far less of a problem for the Boks.

Again, too, I felt that coach Peter de Villiers and company flirted a little unnecessarily with disaster in terms of substitution policy.

Yes, getting Alberts on was a godsend, and Francois Hougaard was terrifically lively when he took over from so-so Ruan Pienaar at scrumhalf, but there were also some highly debatable switches which stripped the Boks of continuity at crucial moments.

For instance, there seems to be an obsession with getting Bakkies Botha off the park smack on the hour mark: he had been doing decent, unsung donkeywork ahead of his withdrawal from the fray.

And what about Chiliboy Ralepelle entering the fray for Bismarck du Plessis with some seven minutes left on the clock?

The reserve hooker sadly gets so little first-class game time back home that he can understandably look “cold” when he is suddenly thrown to the Test-match wolves.

Two of his lineout throws were promptly poached and this could so easily have had fatal consequences in the nail-biting climax.
Phew, though, the Slam remains “on” ...