Dewi Lake: Wales will be motivated instead of deflated by South Africa hammering

Captain Dewi Lake claimed Wales would be motivated rather than deflated by their embarrassing drubbing to South Africa.

Records tumbled during a one-sided Cardiff clash which saw the world champions rack up 73 unanswered points and led to yet more soul-searching in Welsh rugby.

Among them was Wales’ largest-ever home defeat, eclipsing England’s 68-14 Six Nations win that had only stood for eight months.

It was also the first time Wales had failed to score in a home Test in Cardiff since 1967, although they were ‘nilled’ earlier this year when losing 43-0 to France in Paris.

“It is never nice to walk off with the scoreboard looking like that or the game feeling like it did,” Lake said after Wales had conceded over 50 points for the third time in their four November fixtures.

“It is still quite a raw emotional dressing room. Boys are proud Welshmen, proud to put the jersey on, so coming off the field like that is tough to take.

“I don’t think it is going to ruin confidence or do anything to younger boys.

“If anything it drives you even more. Coming off the back of something like that you recognise the gap and what you have got to do.

“It also makes you never want to be in that position again which is only going to drive this group on.”

Welsh rugby has plumbed new depths in 2025 with a second successive Six Nations Championship whitewash and Warren Gatland leaving his role as head coach halfway through that campaign.

The domestic game is in crisis with the Welsh Rugby Union driving through plans to cut the number of regions from four to three professional teams by 2027.

There were green shoots in new head coach Steve Tandy’s first three games – defeats to Argentina and New Zealand and a last-gasp victory over Japan – as Wales showed attacking verve and scored 11 tries.

But those signs of encouragement were crudely demolished in a fixture arranged outside World Rugby’s Test window and one Wales had to navigate without 13 England and France-based players because of it.

Those players will be available when Wales kick off their Six Nations campaign in February, but England away and France at home is a daunting start for Tandy’s squad.

Lake said: “Ultimately it is about going back to what we worked on throughout this campaign.

“What we have built and are starting to build, and seeing the positives in what is a raw feeling at the moment.”