Wales ended a grim 2025 with their darkest day yet, hammered 73-0 by South Africa in a brutal display at Principality Stadium — the heaviest loss ever suffered on home soil.
An under-strength Welsh side coached by Steve Tandy had no response to the Springboks’ relentless power game, conceding 11 tries as the world champions cruised to victory and secured the No. 1 world ranking for a third consecutive year.
South Africa raced to a 28-0 halftime lead through tries from Gerhard Steenekamp, Ethan Hooker, Jasper Wiese and Morne van der Berg. The second half brought further punishment with doubles for Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and scores from Wilco Louw, Canan Moodie, Andre Esterhuizen, Ruan Nortje and Eben Etzebeth — surpassing England’s previous record margin of 68-14 in Cardiff.
The only sour note for the Springboks came in the dying moments when substitute lock Etzebeth was red-carded for an eye gouge on Alex Mann.
Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who spent time at Llandovery College in Wales on a school exchange from Cape Town, dominated with two tries and 18 points off the tee for a personal haul of 28.
2025 has been a year to forget for Wales, and it ended with another historic humiliation: a second scoreless defeat of the calendar year (after the 43-0 Six Nations loss to France) and the worst home result in their history.
The 73-0 drubbing by South Africa laid bare the enormous gap between the two sides and sparked immediate questions about why the Welsh Rugby Union scheduled the fixture outside World Rugby’s international window. Wales were without 13 players contracted to clubs in England and France, while the Springboks—despite missing some names to club commitments—still fielded a star-studded lineup whose bench alone had more Test caps than Wales’ entire 23-man squad.
The tone was set at the very first scrum: South Africa monstered their opponents, won a penalty, and minutes later prop Gerhard Steenekamp powered over from close range. Centre Ethan Hooker soon exploited flimsy tackling for the second, and No. 8 Jasper Wiese finished off another dominant scrum to make it 21-0 inside 20 minutes. Just before halftime, Andre Esterhuizen carved through the midfield and scrum-half Morne van der Berg sniped over for the bonus-point try.
The second half was merciless. Wilco Louw, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (twice), Canan Moodie, Esterhuizen again, Ruan Nortje and Eben Etzebeth piled on the pain. Wales spent 20 minutes of the period reduced to 14 men after yellow cards to Taine Plumtree and Aaron Wainwright, and when South Africa unleashed their full eight-man “Bomb Squad” bench, the floodgates opened completely.
Etzebeth’s late try was quickly overshadowed by his red card for gouging, an incident that will likely bring a lengthy ban and further tarnish an already bleak day for Welsh rugby.
