South Africa vs Wales match report: Fourie Du Preez's late try sees Springboks snatch victory and secure semi-final spot

South Africa 23 Wales 19

South Africa captain Fourie Du Preez celebrates after scoring the winning try (gettyimages)

South Africa’s crazy World Cup continues. Humiliatingly beaten by Japan in Brighton on the opening weekend, but winners of their pool, they made it through this physically shattering quarter-final by skewering Wales with a sucker punch from a scrum with six minutes remaining.

Alex Cuthbert, the Wales wing, will regret his misread of the short-side break from the base by Duane Vermeulen until kingdom come, even if the final result of a southern-hemisphere win over downtrodden opposition from the north was entirely in keeping with statistical history.

So the Springboks march on to a semi-final, back here next Saturday against the winners of last night’s New Zealand v France tie, as Wales regret a slew of soft penalties given away in the first half, and two crucial incidents, at either end of the match.

There was a huge missed chance in the second minute, when Tyler Morgan – one of the unheralded picks that had been brought in to cover more than a handful of injured Wales backs – ripped the ball from Handre Pollard, but George North was not quite able to finish a raid on the left, and when Wales came back to the right, Gethin Jenkins had the responsibility of finding one of the two men outside him. The loosehead prop made more for pushing than passing, looped a shocker over Morgan’s head and into touch.

The pain in the 74th minute felt a hundred times worse, though, because of the timing. Wales were 19-18 ahead, having defended brilliantly, making around twice as many tackles as the Boks, and mostly keeping their 22 free of green jerseys. At a scrum midway between the posts and the left touchline, Vermeulen charged to the short side, with his scrum-half and captain Fourie du Preez calling the move and following hard on his shoulder. Cuthbert, who might not have been playing if Leigh Halfpenny and Liam Williams had been fit but who had done a sterling job up to then, moved calamitously inside to support his scrum-half Lloyd Williams in tackling Vermuelen. The big No 8, maintaining classy control, slipped a one-handed pass to Du Preez for the 31-year-old to run in his 16th Test try for his country.

South Africa did what they do – hang in there for 80 minutes and when they got one chance, they took it

&#13; <p>Warren Gatland, Wales head coach</p>&#13;

There was time to respond but Wales, with their fly-half Dan Biggar off the field concussed, could not find a way back. Damian de Allende forced a crucial turnover as a tired Wales side were unable to support Jamie Roberts’s umpteenth charge into contact.

Warren Gatland, the shattered Wales head coach, summed up: “South Africa did what they do – hang in there for 80 minutes and when they got one chance, they took it.”

The tough Kiwi has seen enough of these near misses to know the score. All of Wales has. It was South Africa’s 28th win in 31 meetings between the countries since 1906. Only once in 11 attempts have Wales managed to beat one of the southern hemisphere’s big three nations in the World Cup: the third-placed match against Australia in Rotorua in the first tournament in 1987.

Sam Warburton, the Wales captain, was asked if they would ever break this hoodoo: “I hope I’m still around when it happens,” he said. “From an effort point of view we had no regrets but we gave away 12 points in the first half.”

Heyneke Meyer, Gatland’s South Africa counterpart, said he felt like giving Du Preez a kiss but settled for a favoured epithet: “Character is like charcoal – if you put enough pressure on, you get diamonds.”

In the great Twickenham takeover, where “Bread of Heaven” and “Bokke, Bokke, Bokke” stood in for the “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” of the already eliminated England, Biggar had been knocked over after every pass. If not quite cheap shots, they were certainly heavily discounted. But the Ospreys No 10 kicked all but one of his goals, moving his tournament total to 19 out of 21, the best percentage. He also coolly dropped a goal just before half-time to put Wales 13-12 up

But in a match in which every kind of strategic kick was used to try and find space amid the claustrophobia, marginal penalties piled up against Wales early, and Pollard never looked like missing to begin with. Wales stayed just two points adrift after 20 minutes with a penalty by Biggar and a try made by the fly-half and finished by scrum-half Gareth Davies for his fifth of the tournament, level as top scorer with South Africa’s Bryan Habana and New Zealand’s Julian Savea until the All Black cut lose against France later on in the night.

The restart after Pollard’s third penalty had been cleared by Du Preez, and Biggar, on halfway, chipped and regathered brilliantly ahead of Willie le Roux before off-loading to the unmarked Davies.

There’s no name for the move, I just told Duane ‘go left’ in Afrikaans

&#13; <p>Fourie du Preez, South Africa</p>&#13;

Biggar had been unlucky with his only missed kick – hitting the post from 48 metres – but the drop came in the next play and things looked even more promising for Wales when Pollard missed from wide left three minutes into second half, and again on 55 minutes. In between he had dropped a goal and Biggar kicked a penalty for Wales to be leading 16-15. Then there were tit-for-tat penalties, with Wales killing a ruck as Jesse Kriel jackalled, and Cuthbert’s counter-rucking forcing the Boks to transgress, so it was 19-18 with 17 minutes remaining.

Wales sent James Hook and Lloyd Williams on for Morgan and Davies. The dazed Biggar had to be almost dragged off by Wales’s chief physio Prav Mathema. Du Preez said: “I said to our guys, let’s go for the knockout punch. There’s no name for the move, I just told Duane ‘go left’ in Afrikaans.”

It was as simple and brutal as that.