World rankings: Springboks officially make an upward move

The Springboks started what they hope will be a 78-day odyssey through Europe with an imperious eight-try demolition of a brave but inexperienced and outgunned Wales team to win their Rugby World Cup warm-up Test by 52-16 (halftime 24-9) at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff on Saturday.

PLAYER RATINGS: Kolisi shines on Springboks return

It was South Africa’s biggest win over Wales in Cardiff (eclipsing a 34-12 victory in 2007) and featured their most points in the Welsh capital (previous best 38) as the team delivered everything that could be expected of them.

As a result, the Springboks officially move up above World Cup hosts France into third in the world rankings, but will most likely need to beat New Zealand at Twickenham next weekend in order to stay there.

Meanwhile, Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber quickly focused on improving as the Rugby World Cup kick off moved a day closer.

“We have to get better going into France,” he said. “We’re on the side of the draw that’s knockout from game one and just to get out of our pool will be a challenge.

“Everyone would know that it’s our aim to go back-to-back and retain the World Cup and we can’t hide from it. We want to be the second team to successfully defend it and the bonus would be that we’d the best first team to win four world cups.

“It’s a massive thing that we’re playing for, and you can talk around it but that’s our goal – and to achieve it we’ll have to get better.”

ALSO READ | Don’t forget: Final World Cup squad deadline is on Monday!

Nienaber conceded that the Wales team was not the strongest that could be fielded and that other sides might have punished the Springboks.

“I think it’s fair to say, and without any disrespect to Wales, they could have picked a more experienced side,” said the Bok coach.

“Like we did against Wales in Bloemfontein last year, they probably wanted to see if their fringe players can go to the World Cup. From our perspective we knew we were going to get a young guy against us; a desperate guy playing against a Siya (Kolisi) and that’s what we got.

“In the first half for 20 or 30 minutes it really was a grind and we had to be clinical in our approach to wear them down.

“That’s what we wanted, and that’s what we expected and because we didn’t know them so well and we had to find solutions in the game – for instance I thought their kicking game in the first half was excellent. We had to find solutions because we didn’t know the wings and the scrumhalves so well, so I thought that was great preparation for us.”

WATCH: Siya Kolisi’s magic move in first game back