Cardiff (United Kingdom) (AFP) - Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu starred as South Africa ran in 11 unanswered tries to inflict a record 73-0 home defeat on Wales in the autumn season-ending international Test in Cardiff on Saturday.

The loss surpassed Wales’s 68-14 defeat to England in the Six Nations in March.

It was also the first time they had been kept pointless in Cardiff in the professional era – the last time Wales were kept at nil in the capital was back in 1967 in a 3-0 loss to Ireland.

They were also beaten 51-0 by France in 1998 at Wembley in what was technically a home game.

The Springboks are back-to-back world champions and touched down in the Welsh capital on the back of wins over Japan (61-7), France (32-17), Italy (32-14) and Ireland (24-13).

The comprehensive victory in Cardiff marked the second successive season that they have completed an Autumn Series clean sweep.

It was also a 12th victory in 14 Tests this year, including a 67-30 thrashing of Argentina and a record 43-10 win over New Zealand in Wellington.

Their only blip was a late red card for 140-cap lock Eben Etzebeth.

Wales, thoroughly outgunned in the scrum and clueless in attack, were fighting a losing battle from the off as they were missing 13 players who had returned to club duty as the fixture fell outside of World Rugby’s Test window.

It was their biggest defeat by the Boks since a second-string Wales side went down 96-13 in Pretoria in 1998.

“It was good, we’re proud of today and the whole tour,” South Africa captain Siya Kolisi told S4C.

“We’ve been building depth into the squad. We respected Wales as much as we could, and we needed to go out and play our game.”

Wales skipper Dewi Lake acknowledged that his team had been “overpowered”.

“We can’t ignore the score and the performance,” he said. “When you play the best team in the world, you need to step up and we didn’t have any ball to play and that cost us.”

- ‘Welsh lamb on the braii’ -

Feinberg-Mngomezulu scored two tries and nine conversions for a personal tally of 28 points that took him to 123 points in 10 matches for the green and gold in 2025.

Centre Andre Esterhuizen was another star. His barn-storming midfield drives were a constant thorn in the Welsh defence and offered South Africa relentless momentum in front of 50,112 in the Principality Stadium.

The Welsh scrum was under the cosh from the vaunted Bok pack and the opening three tries, from Gerhard Steenkamp, Ethan Hooker and Jasper Wiese, all came from dominant attacking set-pieces.

An Esterhuizen crashball set up a ruck from which scrum-half Morne van den Berg darted over for South Africa’s fourth try, as they led 28-0 at half-time.

Wales had a terrible start to the second period, as another Esterhuizen drive set up a ruck from which Wilco Louw barged over.

Welsh woes were compounded by Taine Plumtree’s yellow card.

“I smell Welsh lamb on the braii!” one South African fan had written on her cardboard placard. So it proved as the floodgates opened.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who as a teenager spent a year at Llandovery College, Carmarthenshire, on a rugby exchange from his Cape Town school, took a quick tap penalty to surge under the posts for South Africa’s sixth try.

Canan Moodie hacked ahead to touch down before Esterhuizen claimed a deserved try.

South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus, known for his innovative approach, brought on all eight replacements in the 52nd minute.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu skipped in for his second try before Ruan Nortje and Etzebeth, who was sent-off for eye-gauging a minute from the end, also went over to leave Wales coach Steve Tandy with a mountain to climb ahead of their Six Nations opener away to England.