A bruising encounter ended 24-15 in South Africa’s favour, with Wales losing a trio of key men to injury in the first half.
Neither team gave an inch throughout the full 80 minutes but de Villiers believes his troops came out on top of the physical exchanges and that set the platform for their three-try success.
“The talk all week had been that they would bring it to us physically,” said de Villiers, who scored the first of his side’s tries on his 94th Test appearance.
“I made my debut 11 years ago and the one thing that has always been part of this team is that we bring the physicality. We pride ourselves on that.
“It was physical and you don’t expect anything less when you play Wales. It’s Test-match rugby and that’s never easy. They were up for it but I think we probably won that battle.”
South Africa started on the front foot as they raced into a 17-6 lead inside 18 minutes and, although Wales cut the deficit to just two points, the Boks claimed a controversial final try through Fourie du Preez with 15 minutes left to play.
De Villiers praised his side’s composure under pressure and insisted he always felt like the Boks would come out on top even when the momentum was with Wales.
“The start was always going to be important and we started well. We got quite a nice lead,” added de Villiers.
“Our experience then showed in the way that we closed out the match. When they got back to within two points was the only time we felt they had a bit of a chance but we felt in control for most of the game.”
De Villiers took time to wish Wales centre Jonathan Davies a speedy recovery from the pectoral injury that brought his involvement on Saturday to a premature end and ruled him out of the remainder of the Dove Men Series.
De Villiers was directly involved in the incident that led to Davies’ departure, with the Scarlets star suffering the setback as he attempted to prevent his fellow midfielder from touching down for the opening try.
“Jonathan’s had a fantastic couple of years and hopefully he can make a speedy recovery. He’s a quality player It’s obviously disappointing – it’s never nice when anyone gets injured but, unfortunately, that’s part of rugby.
“Losing Jamie (Roberts) prior to the game and then Jonathan as well didn’t make it easy for them but I thought the guys that came on did a good job for them. You will lose players to injuries and it’s about the way you’re able to adapt.”
