Wow. South Africa just flexed their muscles in the next scrum and absolutely demolished the Welsh pack.

That was frighteningly impressive and now they have a lineout deep inside the Welsh half.

Oh... and Wales have just won a free kick from the game's first scrum. What's going on?

Green shoots of promise for Wales as Alex Mann takes the first lineout and Ellis Mee shows great hands to gather a ball off his ankles and hoof the ball up field.

The lineout has been an area of weakness this month but needs to be spot on today.

South Africa are playing their change colour of white shirts and green shorts.

The anthems have been sung and Dan Edwards gets us under way here under the Principality Stadium roof for the final international match of the year.

Image source, Getty Images

Wales: Murray; Mee, Roberts, Hawkins, Dyer; Edwards, Hardy; G Thomas, Lake (capt), Assiratti, Carter, R Davies, Plumtree, Mann, Wainwright.

South Africa: D Willemse; Hooker, De Allende, Esterhuizen, Moodie; Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Van der Berg; Steenekamp, Grobbelaar, Louw, Kleyn, Nortje, Kolisi (capt), Mostert, Wiese.

Referee: Luc Ramos (France)

Image source, Huw Evans Picture Agency

It will be no surprise the strength-in-depth between the two sides contrasts widely.

Rassie Erasmus can still call on 899 caps in his matchday squad.

In fact his bench has more caps - 374 - than Wales' entire 23-man squad - 306 - with Tandy forced to name a weakened side to take on the world champions.

It is the most inexperienced Welsh pack since the first Test in Argentina in 2018 when the forwards had just 81 caps between them.

Can you name them?

Here's the answer... Rob Evans (25 caps), Elliot Dee (8), Dillon Lewis (3), Adam Beard (2), Cory Hill (16), Seb Davies (5), James Davies (1) and Ross Moriarty (21)

Ian Gough
Former Wales international on BBC Radio Wales

We’re up against a huge South Africa team and can we just tell the ref to avoid set pieces please?

The atmosphere here is building, we’re waiting for the teams and it’s amazing!

Not often a replacement leads out a team but Cobus Reinach is handed that honour ahead of what is set to be his 50th cap.

He's actually the only back on the Springbok bench so the odds are pretty good that he's going to get on!

Teams are out and we're only a few minutes from kick-off.

Believe it or not, there was a time, not so long ago, when Wales actually enjoyed playing South Africa.

Under the guidance of Warren Gatland and leadership of Sam Warburton and Alun Wyn Jones, Wales were victorious five times out of six between November 2014 and November 2018,

Unfortunately that one defeat was when it really mattered, in a World Cup quarter-final.

• 2014 - Wales 12-6 South Africa
• 2015 - South Africa 23-19 Wales (Twickenham)
• 2016 - Wales 27-13 South Africa
• 2017 - Wales 24-22 South Africa
• 2018 - South Africa 20-22 Wales (Washington)
• 2018 - Wales 20-11 South Africa

Scott Williams
Wales centre on BBC Radio Cymru

This is going to be a hard game, they did good things last week against the All Blacks.

Wales scored a good few tries, they need to make sure the discipline is on point today, and they need to keep the ball on the pitch as much as possible.

I believe they’ve been training really well, moving well and for 80 minutes they need to keep the contest if they want to achieve anything against the world champions.

Image source, Huw Evans Picture Agency

We've mentioned that the regions are playing this weekend and Dragons pushed United Rugby Championship title holders all the way at Rodney Parade last night.

Read more here.

Image source, gett

It was little wonder that a Springbok would be named the world's best and so it proved when hooker Malcolm Marx was this week named World Rugby this week Men’s 15s Player of the Year.

At the second time of asking and seven years after his first nomination, Marx joins two-time winner and fellow 2025 nominee Pieter-Steph du Toit, as well as Schalk Burger and Bryan Habana in an exclusive club of South African winners of the title.

Marx has been a crucial cog in a dominant South Africa squad in 2025, starting 11 tests this year to date, and scoring four tries in the Rugby Championship alone.

His second-half brace at the Allianz Stadium, Twickenham, in October, helped the Springboks come from behind against Argentina to claim back-to-back titles for the first time.

Wales will be grateful the free-scoring and hard-scrummaging Marx is not playing today.

Wales head coach Steve Tandy said: "What we want to see from the boys is the same type of effort and performance as we did last weekend.

"I think we showed a lot of attacking intent, a lot of toughness in the way we went about lots of the defensive effort as well, to give the supporters something to shout about."

South Africa head coach Rassie Erasmus said: "Both teams were in a similar situation with regards to the availability of players, but they have a balanced squad with a few seasoned players and several younger guys who will be desperate to make a statement," said Erasmus.

"So, we are expecting them to come out firing and to throw everything at us."

Image source, Getty Images

Double World Cup-winning South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus says the global game needs a strong Wales.

While the world champions have conquered all before them, Welsh rugby is in disarray on and off the field with the senior men's side having lost 20 of its past 22 Tests.

But Erasmus insists the global game needs Wales to come good.

"We need a strong Welsh team, they just have the tradition of loving to play the game," he said.

"I don't understand what is going on in the Welsh set-up, I do not understand the politics, what works and what doesn't work," said Erasmus.

"Whatever's wrong off the field, you [Wales] have the guts, players and willpower.

"I know deep in the belly of the Welsh, there is fight and somewhere it's going to come right.

"There's something about the Welsh people. There's not a lot of people here but if you go outside [in Wales], you see some things of South Africa.

"Not everybody is wealthy and living a fantastic life, but they grind things out."

Image source, Huw Evans Picture Agency

Rassie Erasmus is on the pitch while the teams warm up and he has not taken his eyes off Wales.

Not sure if he's eye-balling them through those specs or looking for any late insight... but he's certainly more interested in the Welsh players than his own right now.

It's a little unnerving.

Image source, Getty Images

French referee Luc Ramos will take charge of South Africa for the first time in a test today.

However it is the second time he referees Wales, having been in the middle for their loss to Fiji at this venue a year ago.

Wales fans will be hoping to avoid the same fate as 12 months ago.

Image source, Getty Images

Here are the ranking permutations from World Rugby ahead of today's final match of the Quilter Nations Series in Cardiff.

Just a reminder... the 2027 World Cup pool draw takes place in Sydney next Wednesday.

• South Africa will end the year as the number one side for the third year in succession, regardless of what happens at the Principality Stadium this weekend.
• The Springboks can only lose a maximum of three points in defeat by Wales, which will leave them still 0.61 rating points above New Zealand in second.
• South Africa cannot improve their rating with victory over Wales due to the 19.71 points between the teams before home weighting is factored in.
• Even a win by more than 15 points would not be enough for Wales to climb from 11th.

James Hook
Former Wales fly-half on BBC Radio Wales

We’re in a completely different place than where we were when we last beat South Africa.

Our only win this Autumn, was our worst performance. There were shining lights against the Pumas and against the All Blacks last week.

It’s all about containing South Africa today, but it will be difficult with keeping the continuity that Tandy has started, and we’ll be looking at the likes of Dan Edwards and Dewi Lake who have played four on the bounce.

And players like Ellis Mee coming into the fold, big day for them.

Image source, Huw Evans Picture Agency

Wales - and particularly Tom Rogers - may have proved against the Al Blacks they can score points.

But the question remains whether they can stop opponents scoring many more.

In 2025, Wales have conceded 368 points in 10 fixtures at an average of 36.8.

By way of comparison with other Six Nations teams, England average 17.1, Ireland 18.9, Scotland 20.9, France 25.6, and Italy 31.9.

Cardiff has already witnessed three visiting teams - England (68), Argentina (52) and New Zealand (52) - score half a century of points this year.

Wales have held their opponents to fewer than 20 points just once since the 2023 World Cup - beaten 16-14 by England at Twickenham.

Tandy was defence coach with Scotland and the British & Irish Lions and assumed much of the responsibility, aided by part-time new coach Dan Lydiate.

And Tandy knows defence starts with discipline.

Wales have conceded 33 penalties in the November Tests so far, with fouls leading to a red card for Josh Adams and yellows for Ben Thomas, Tomos Williams, Taine Plumtree and Gareth Thomas.

"We have to be smarter because we spent 10 minutes in the 22 defending last weekend," said Tandy.

"The bravery, toughness, quality and physicality they put in was outstanding, but we wanted to do that less because you can see what we can do when we're at the other end of the field."

In contrast, South Africa have averaged 37 points and five tries per game from autumn successes against Japan, France, Italy and Ireland.