The Wales national rugby union team toured South Africa in June 2008, playing two matches against the South Africa national team. South Africa won both tests, winning 43–17 in Bloemfontein on 7 June and 37–21 in Pretoria a week later.
Fixtures
The venue for the first match was put in doubt due to ongoing work at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein in preparation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The schedule for the tour was confirmed on 27 March 2008; the first match would be played at the Free State Stadium on 7 June 2008 as scheduled, with the second at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria a week later.[1] The winners of the series would win the Prince William Cup, a trophy first awarded at the teams' previous meeting in Cardiff in November 2007.[2][3] The matches were not played using the Experimental Law Variations (ELVs) that had been trialled during the 2008 Super 14 season, which South Africa coach Peter de Villiers said gave Wales an advantage.[4]
Wales went into the tour as reigning Six Nations champions and unbeaten under new coach Warren Gatland, for whom this was his first tour in charge. After an intensive fitness camp in Ireland that included uncapped scrum-half Warren Fury,[5] Gatland named an initial squad of 27 for the tour.[6] Several members of Wales' Grand Slam-winning team were left out due to injury, including flankers Martyn Williams and Robin Sowden-Taylor (shoulder), full-back Lee Byrne, centre Gavin Henson (ankle), and scrum-halves Mike Phillips (knee) and Dwayne Peel (shoulder),[7][8][9][10][11] while number 8 Alix Popham ruled himself out ahead of a summer move to French club Brive.[12] Fellow back row Colin Charvis was left out after his club, the Newport Gwent Dragons, refused to release him for the training camp in Ireland.[13] Meanwhile, wing Mark Jones recovered from groin surgery in time to be picked.[14] Hooker Huw Bennett (ankle) and uncapped scrum-half Andy Williams (back) later also pulled out injured;[15] Bennett was replaced by Ospreys scrum-half Richard Hibbard, while Williams was not replaced, leaving Fury as the only recognised back-up to Gareth Cooper, although wing Shane Williams said he would fill in at scrum-half if asked, having begun his career playing the position for Amman United.[16] As well as Fury, lock Bradley Davies and centre Andrew Bishop were the other uncapped players included in the squad.[6] Cardiff Blues hooker T. Rhys Thomas was called into the squad after Matthew Rees suffered a calf injury in the first test.[17]
The two matches against Wales were South Africa's first at home since being crowned world champions in the 2007 Rugby World Cup final against England. In January 2008, they appointed Peter de Villiers as their head coach, replacing Jake White, whose contract expired at the end of 2007.[18] Selecting predominantly from the pool of players based in South Africa, as per a ruling by the South African Rugby Union board,[19] De Villiers named a 30-man squad for the series against Wales and the match against Italy the following week; he picked four uncapped players, including Zimbabwe-born props Tendai Mtawarira and Brian Mujati, but there were several injury absentees from the side that won the World Cup, including centre Jaque Fourie, flanker Schalk Burger (knee) and scrum-half Fourie du Preez (hand).[20][21][22] Wing Bryan Habana and lock Bakkies Botha were included in the squad after the resolution of a legal dispute between Botha and the South African Rugby Union over his planned move to French second division side Toulon.[23]
