It was the first time in 45 games against the big three southern hemisphere teams that Wales had stopped the opposition from scoring a try, going back to the 2001 defeat to Australia, and the first time in 26 games against the Boks themselves, dating back to 1960.
Given that South Africa had won four of their last five games, including victories over New Zealand, Australia and England, and had averaged 32 points per game in their last 16 outings against Wales, it was a dramatic success at the Millennium Stadium.
“It’s nice to win and we have wounded one of the big beats. It is part of the stepping stone towards what we want to achieve. The long term goal is to win the World Cup and we think we are good enough to do that given the bounce of the ball,” said Gatland.
“It is going to take a lot of hard work, but the whole focus of this campaign and the Six Nations for us is making sure we qualify out of the Pool of death at the World Cup next year.
“This win is something we will be able to draw on and take experience from. A win like today’s, along with going toe to toe with the All Blacks and leading Australia into the closing few minutes, is going to make us mentally stronger. It is the mental toughness that will hopefully take us to the next level.”
Wales skipper Sam Warburton was delighted to have finally clinched a win over one of the big three in a Welsh shirt. As with every other member of the squad, it was a first win victory over the Springboks.
“It’s amazing. This proves that you definitely get out of life what you are prepared to put in. I just wish more people had been able to see how much effort everyone has put in over the five weeks of this campaign,” said Warburton.
“We were desperate to win this game. And it’s certainly a career highlight for me. I’ve been in the Welsh squad since 2009 and this is the first time I’ve beaten one of the big three.
“To win the World Cup this is now the standard we need to maintain if we are to kick-on as a side. It is a massive achievement.
“I always thought it was a question of when rather than if we beat one of the southern hemisphere sides. I’ve always had faith in the ability of the Welsh team.”
Ospreys outside half Dan Biggar was picked as the Man of the Match by Jonathan Davies and was delighted to have finally picked up a win against one of the world’s top teams.
“It was a great team effort and a great relief to win – this means everything to us, it is huge. It has been an amazing day,” admitted Biggar.
“After all those narrow defeats this is what makes it all worthwhile. The crowd were amazing, but we always seem to make it hard for ourselves.
“We have thrown things away in the past, but this is a real moment for us moving forward and shows what there is still to come.”
Springbok coach Heineke Meyer was full of praise for Wales and described Gatland’s side as “brilliant”. It was South Africa’s second defeat on their four match European tour following their opening day loss in Dublin against Ireland.
“Wales played well and were the better team on the day. They were brilliant,” said Meyer. “We didn’t cope well under pressure. You have to take the pressure and then put pressure on the opposition.
“Usually we get a lot of momentum in the last 20 minutes, but there were two significant moments for us in that period. Firstly, we lost out captain with a serious injury and then we lost a player to the sin-bin.
“We simply made too many mistakes and, even though we didn’t concede when we were down to 14 men, we failed to take the chance when we had a scrum five metres out from the Welsh line.
“We want to win every game we play, but we always knew we were going to give some youngsters a chance on this tour. You have to put guys under pressure before they go into World Cup situations.
“We still have time to fix things before the World Cup and I think we have a good squad. There is still a year to go and nobody’s name is pencilled in yet.”
