Henry loses plot as Wales are mugged

The change left Jenkins, having kicked apenalty and conversion, marooned four points short of his 1,000th in Test rugby at least until England appear in the same stadium in February.

Thomas tried drop goals either side of the crucial penalty and when another Welsh hooker threw away another line-out with calamitous consequences, the little fellow tried desperately to retrieve a losing cause in the third minute of injury-time only to see his drop-out fall into the wrong hands. All he could do thereafter was watch in mounting horror as the Springboks went for the kill and Breyton Paulse applied the final flourish.

That coincided with the most telling sight of the match - that of Henry leaving his seat in the middle tier of the stand and turning on his heel. Forty minutes later, instead of presiding over a significant home win, the Great Redeemer was honest enough to talk about a sense of 'guilt'.

'Hindsight is a wonderful thing,' he said. 'My thought process was that we were behind on the scoreboard. We had territorial dominance for most of the first 20 minutes of the second half and that was probably the time when we should have put South Africa away.

'I thought Arwel might have produced a little magic, a spark which might have turned the tables but it didn't happen. I'm feeling very guilty but you have to go with your gut feeling.'

The debate, like anything to do with the most cherished position in Welsh sport, will rage on until England arrive for the start of the Six Nations.

But it ought not to obscure the fact that Wales lost because they succeeded in turning their line- out into the platform for Springbok strikes. They did it, what's more, not once but twice. The Boks, hanging on in the face of a sustained assault from the heavy artillery unleashed in the form of Scott Quinnell, Colin Charvis and Chris Wyatt, reached half-time thankful not to have been any more than four points adrift at 10-6.

Scott Gibbs, the English Grand Slam-buster at Wembley last year, had blasted through a narrow corridor to punish Joost van der West-huizen for an expensive, almost inexplicable loss of memory. As a surprising reminder that he had not learned the bruising lessons dished out by Gibbs during the Lions' tour three years ago, van der Westhuizen made the mistake of going high on the Welshman instead of low.

Gibbs dipped the shoulder, ploughed through the tackle without deviating an inch off course and plunged over to the delight of a full-house of 72,500.

Wales, with Robert Howley driving them forward for wings Shane Williams and Dafydd James to throw their opponents into a flat spin with their elusive running, ought to have been home and dry. Instead, they allowed their groggy opponents to bounce back off the ropes by chucking them a lifeline, literally.

It came in the shape of a throw from Garin Jenkins which drifted so far off course that Corne Krige caught it in yards of space at the tail and set off of a chain of events which culminated in van der Westhuizen shooting over between the posts. The Springboks have never been known to look a gift horse in the mouth.

That the try involved a shifty piece of obstruction by Mark Andrews will not make Wales feel any better, Andrews' blocking of his second row rival Ian Gough securing the shaft of space for van der Westhuizen to bail South Africa out of trouble for the umpteenth time.

Wales promptly withdrew Jenkins only for his substitute, Andrew Lewis, to throw away the next critical piece of possession.

With Thomas by then having unwittingly convinced South Africa that this really was their lucky day, Andrews seized Lewis' throw at the front of the line-out.

Andre Venter then caused sufficient pandemonium for New Zealand referee Steve Walsh to catch an illegal Welsh hand in a ruck bang in front of the posts.

Braam van Straaten nailed the simplest of goals and 60 seconds later Wales were out for the count, floored by a try even later than the one which Venter had scored in Dublin the previous Sunday.

This lot never know when they are beaten and England, waiting for them at Twickenham on Saturday, need to heed the message.