There were hints of the old world champions in the way the Springboks came back from the dead to record what has to be their most famous win over Wales.

Peter de Villiers's men took their supporters and their fans through purgatory in narrowly keeping their Grand Slam hopes alive, with Scotland up next on Saturday.

In a trip on which the whole touring group seem to be playing for their World Cup lives, the Boks showed the necessary desperation in turning around a match in which Wales had run rings around them.

The visitors also managed to set a psychological marker against their group opponents in New Zealand, who appear to lack the knock-out punch against them when they have their tails up.

Ironically, what made this such a compelling game of rugby were three things that are often maligned in SA rugby: the kick and chase, the pick and drive, and De Villiers's substitutions, with the defence securing the win as the Welsh predictably struck back in desperation.

The visitors' best passage of play in the first half was from the kick-off, which was turned over by Welsh No8 Jonathan Thomas and ended up in Morne Steyn opening the scoring with a penalty.

What happened next was about a performance so dominant by the hosts that one could only remember New Zealand being that on top of the Boks this year.

The forwards, who were the cornerstone of that unexpected win over Ireland, found themselves to be no match for a fired-up local pack.

Despite that, the hosts came hard at the Boks, starting with the very first scrum of the game. The visiting scrum simply disintegrated at the sheer power of the Wales scrum, setting the tone for a half in which Victor Matfield and Co would be on their heels.

The second of Wales' two tries during that period was from a creaking Bok scrum from the edge of the visiting 22, which saw the under-pressure Morne Steyn fail to kick out.

The Welsh "Jonah Lomu" George North, who had already capped a dream debut with a the first of his two tries, started a counter-attack which was given impetus by fellow winger Shane Williams and rounded off by James Hook.

The Bok scrum was struggling so much in the first half that one felt that referee Steve Walsh - an old nemesis of the world champions - was deliberately awarding them the 50/50 knock-on calls just to see them smashed.

Victor Matfield, in becoming the most capped Springbok of all time, manned the lineout well, but the Welsh defence of the rolling maul meant that was hardly a platform to replace the back-pedalling scrum.

At the rucks, one got the impression that even with the inexplicably pedestrian Mike Phillips at scrumhalf the hosts were the less-harassed of the two sides at the breakdown.

The 29th minute provided the perfect snap-shot of the disarray the Boks found themselves in. Bjorn Basson had chased well at kick-off and tipped the ball back to the Boks, who set up a ruck.

Beast Mtawarira and Pierre Spies, the intended recipients of Frans Steyn's ankle pass from there, chose not to gather the bobbling ball, with Bismarck du Plessis knocking it on when he tried to for yet another eye-watering scrum.

The penalties were mounting for the under-the-cosh Boks. It was time for problem-solving rugby. Curiously, this came via the old pick and go; the kick and chase; whatever effing and blinding the Bok coaches must have done at half time; and their often-maligned substitutions.

The introduction of big Willem Alberts and Flip van der Merwe lent the toiling Bismarck du Plessis and Pierre Spies the help to generate go-forward ball, with Alberts carrying Chris Czekaj over the tryline.

The desperate last quarter saw Wales score to set up squeaky bum time, but the Boks remembered what made them world champions in the first place to quell the resistance.

SCORERS:

Wales 25 - Tries: George North (2), James Hook Conversions: Stephen Jones (2) Penalties: Jones (2)

South Africa - 29 - Tries: Willem Alberts, Victor Matfield Conversions: Morne Steyn (2) Penalties: Steyn (5)