WHEN South Africa triumphed in Cardiff in 2007, just weeks after winning the World Cup, flanker Schalk Burger conducted his post-match interviews with a can of Carling in his hand.

They had won at a canter and it was the same old story for the Springboks: they came, they bullied, they conquered.

Fast forward six years and it would be easy to think the same applies after another Welsh defeat that still leaves them trailing Newport's tally of two wins against South Africa.

Nobody does physical rugby like the Boks, not even Samoa.

Yet Wales weren't trampled into the decidedly dodgy Millennium Stadium turf on Saturday, even after suffering a nightmare opening that saw Jonathan Davies, Liam Williams and Adam Jones forced off.

They took a pounding early on but rallied to dish out some treatment of their own.

"I thought we coped pretty well with the physicality," said captain Sam Warburton, who was the pick of the back row.

"In open play I didn't think we struggled, we enjoyed it. I have felt worse after other games."

It was an astonishingly brutal game and some of the hits were incredible.

We are often told that League is a real man's game but Saturday's Test made the England-Australia World Cup game, held in Cardiff a fortnight earlier, look like a game of summer touch rugby.

The Boks were battle-hardened by the Rugby Championship but Wales emptied the tank.

They were still outmuscled but they weren't overwhelmed in the same way as their predecessors were by John Smit, Victor Matfield & Co.

Whether Wales are damaged goods mentally is another question.

The Boks play with arrogance – they are going to smash you and they are going to win.

Wales still play like they are haunted by past disappointments against southern hemisphere big guns and not even a win against Australia at the end of the series will solve that problem.

Gatland takes his team to South Africa in the summer of 2014 and it will tough to turn over what, let's face it, are a better team on their own patch.

Saturday was a pretty even contest with Wales having a slight edge in terms of possession (53 per cent) and territory (52 per cent).

The Boks just took their chances, showing the sort of finishing that their hosts lack without injured wing Alex Cuthbert.

It was an engrossing game played on an unacceptably bad pitch.

Last week Newport Gwent Dragons were invited to Wales' Vale of Glamorgan headquarters to put the squad through their paces.

Well, Lyn Jones can expect a phone call from Warren Gatland this week asking if his charges can do the same again, but on the cabbage patch at Rodney Parade.

"Perfect practice makes perfect," as former Newport County boss Dean Holdsworth used to say while channelling the spirit of David Brent.

That it was such a good game on such a poor surface is testament to the sides and Wales did remarkably well to be just 17-12 down at the break.

A hammering looked on the cards when hooker Bismarck du Plessis powered over for the Boks' second try from a driving lineout, adding to captain Jean de Villiers' score after speedster Bryan Habana exploited the presence of Richard Hibbard in midfield before making a mug of George North.

Wales came back through the boot of Leigh Halfpenny and the game was still in the balance in the final quarter with the visitors leading 17-15.

But man of the match Fourie du Preez sealed the win with a rather fortunate score in the 65th minute.

He was lucky that the ball came his way from an up and under to allow him to kick down the line, he was lucky that it took a South African bounce, he was lucky that Rhys Priestland hesitated, he was very lucky that the touch judge didn't spot that the chasing Jacque Fourie was offside.

But there was nothing lucky about the centre's offload or the scrum-half's supporting run.

So at 24-15 the game was gone, added to 24 other losses to the South Africans.

Wales will beat Argentina on Saturday, Tonga the following Friday and probably Australia last up, but the chance of claiming a really big scalp has gone.

Wales: L Halfpenny, G North, J Davies (A Beck 12), S Williams, L Williams (J Hook 12), R Priestland, M Phillips (L Williams 72), G Jenkins, R Hibbard (K Owens 63), A Jones (S Andrews 30, P James 40), B Davies, A W Jones (L Charteris 72), D Lydiate (J Tipuric 63), S Warburton (captain), T Faletau.

Scorers: penalties – L Halfpenny (5)

Yellow card: G Jenkins

South Africa: P Lambie, JP Pietersen (JJ Engelbrecht 71), J Fourie, J De Villiers, B Habana, M Steyn (W Le Roux 18), F du Preez (R Pienaar 77), T Mtawarira (G Steenkamp 66), B du Plessis (A Strauss 68), F Malherbe (C Oosthuizen 55), E Etzebeth (P du Toit 68), F Van der Merwe, F Louw, W Alberts (S Kolisi 66), D Vermeulen.

Scorers: tries – J De Villiers, B du Plessis, F du Preez; conversions – M Steyn (2), P Lambie; penalty – M Steyn

Yellow cards: F Louw, C Oosthuizen

Referee: Alain Rolland

Attendance: 66,490