Record win by Springboks in Wales defaced by Etzebeth red card for eye gouge

CARDIFF, Wales (AP) — Every fear for Wales came to pass as South Africa bossed their rugby mismatch to an inevitable 73-0 victory in a half-filled Principality Stadium on Saturday.

The Springboks handed Wales its worst loss at home — second worst overall — and Wales was nilled in Cardiff for the first time since 1967.

But the triumphant end to an unbeaten tour of Europe by South Africa was scarred by Eben Etzebeth eye-gouging Alex Mann in a melee in the dying moments. Etzebeth was issued a permanent red card in his record-extending 141st test for the Springboks.

“It was a justified red card,” Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus said. “I'm not sure if it was provoked but that's not the way we want to play.”

South Africa scored 11 tries, two of them by flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, whose nine-of-11 goalkicking lifted his personal haul to 28 points. The player of the match was wrecking ball midfielder Andre Esterhuizen.

The Welsh Rugby Union has stabilized its finances to the point of earning a profit, and booked this money-making matchup with the double world champion outside the test window. That meant Wales could not select 13 English- and French-based players for a flagship team which had already conceded 52 points each to Argentina and New Zealand this month.

A skeleton crew was left to be slaughtered.

"We could not play a game today and take the benefits from that. But we need caps," Wales coach Steve Tandy said. “We don't want to put the boys through this but we did.”

The Springboks had to release nine players from the Ireland win last weekend including the last two world players of the year Malcolm Marx and Pieter-Steph du Toit, but showed their ruthless streak by picking their first 7-1 bench of the year.

The bench alone had more caps (374) than the entire Wales team (306) and all eight reserves made an impressive Bomb Squad appearance in the 51st minute when the score was 49-0 and Wales was playing with 14 men.

Wales back-rower Taine Plumtree was doubly unfortunate; he forced off teammate Aaron Wainwright briefly after accidentally putting a fist in his eye then was yellow-carded. Just when his time was up, Wainwright was sin-binned for a high tackle. In the 20 minutes they were off, South Africa bumped the score from 35-0 to 61-0.

The most inexperienced Wales forward pack since 2018 couldn't live with the Boks scrum, which was the launch pad for their first five tries to Gerhard Steenekamp, Ethan Hooker, Jasper Wiese, Morne van den Berg and Wilco Louw.

“My forward pack is next level,” Feinberg-Mngomezulu said.

South Africa, up 28-0 at halftime, had barely used its backs. But the backs were more active after halftime and tries followed for Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Canan Moodie, Esterhuizen, Ruan Nortje and Etzebeth.

It was all too easy for the fourth South Africa side to nil Wales at home after the original Springboks of 1906 and the Grand Slam tourists of 1912 and 1960.

Erasmus was a try-scorer for the 1998 Boks who gave Wales its worst defeat, 96-13 in Pretoria. He was proud of the hunger and fight his 2025 team showed for their year-ending 13th win in 15 tests.

“I thought it was one of the more clinical performances,” he said. “We put our soul into the game.”

AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby

Wales's Blair Murray, center, and South Africa's Damian Willemse during the rugby union international match between Wales and South Africa in Cardiff, Wales, Saturday Nov. 29, 2025. (Andrew Matthews/PA via AP)

South Africa's Ethan Hooker is tackled by Wales's Blair Murray and Rio Dyer during the rugby union international match between Wales and South Africa in Cardiff, Wales, Saturday Nov. 29, 2025. (Andrew Matthews/PA via AP)

South Africa's Ethan Hooker celebrates scoring a try during the rugby union international match between Wales and South Africa in Cardiff, Wales, Saturday Nov. 29, 2025. (Andrew Matthews/PA via AP)

South Africa's Sacha Mngomezulu kicks a conversion during the rugby union international match between Wales and South Africa in Cardiff, Wales, Saturday Nov. 29, 2025. (Andrew Matthews/PA via AP)

South Africa's Siya Kolisi is tackled by Wales's Blair Murray during the rugby union international match between Wales and South Africa in Cardiff, Wales, Saturday Nov. 29, 2025. (Andrew Matthews/PA via AP)

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that developing countries have gained an increasingly important role in the global economy, while the share of output by Western countries has shrunk.

In a speech to the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin accused the West of undermining the global economy and finances with unilateral sanctions.

By freezing Russian assets abroad, Western nations eroded trust in their own currencies, he said.

“The sanctions and blocking of Russia’s sovereign reserves have irreversibly impacted the standing of international currencies, the dollar and the euro,” he said. “Just like Russia, any other country could lose access to their legitimate assets in dollars or euros, as well as Western financial and payment systems.”

He alleged that high state debt had helped undermine global trust in Western institutions.

“The roots of the current global turbulence lie in the transition from a vertical, hierarchical model, which served the interests of a small number of states, to a more complex, distributed and multipolar one,” Putin said. “Russia views global changes not only as a threat but also as immense opportunities. And to capitalize on them, we aim to act swiftly and pragmatically.”

The forum comes at a time when Russia’s economic outlook has clouded amid the conflict in Ukraine. The government raised taxes and increased domestic borrowing to keep its budget deficit under control.

On Thursday, Putin told heads of international media at a question-and-answer session that it was an exaggeration to say Russia's economy was struggling. He noted that his government had taken deliberate steps to cool the economy to keep inflation under control.

Putin has used the St. Petersburg forum, likened to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to showcase his country’s economic advances and encourage foreign investment. While Western officials and business leaders have stayed away after Putin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, Russia has sought guests from elsewhere to underline its declared goal of promoting a “multipolar world.”

Saudi Arabia sent a large delegation this year, and the presidents of Uzbekistan and Tanzania and vice president of China also are present. A U.S. official, Rodney Mims Cook Jr., head of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, is attending for the first time in years.

Also on Thursday, he acknowledged damaging Ukrainian drone attacks inside Russia and pledged to bolster its defenses.

“To our regret, some of them break through,” Putin told the media session in talking about the drone strikes. “Russia has an air defense system, we need to improve it, strengthen it, and we will do that.”

Hours before the forum opened on Wednesday, a Ukrainian drone attack set ablaze an oil terminal in the city and also hit a nearby naval base.

Putin said Russia is open for a compromise on Ukraine in line with understandings reached at his last year's summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Anchorage, Alaska, adding that Ukraine needs to accept them to make a deal to end the conflict, now in its fifth year.

On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed face-to-face negotiations in a public letter addressed directly to Putin. Zelenskyy acknowledged shifting U.S. priorities, saying it would be wrong to wait for the U.S. to return its attention to Ukraine while it remains heavily focused on the Iran war.

In Washington, Trump said it “would be great” if Putin and Zelenskyy meet.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin hadn’t seen the letter yet and repeated his statement that Zelenskyy could come to Moscow if he wants talks, an offer that Zelenskyy pointedly rejected. Putin said last month he doesn’t exclude a meeting in a third country, but only when there is a deal to sign.

Speaking Thursday, Putin again rejected Zelenskyy's push for an immediate ceasefire, arguing that Moscow wants a comprehensive settlement, not a temporary truce.

“Naturally, the Ukrainian side would like us to suspend the advances made by Russian troops," he said. "But it would be better to end the war by agreeing to the compromises that were discussed in Anchorage.”

People visit an exhibition at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in St.Petersburg, Russia, on Thursday, June 4, 2026. (Anatoly Maltsev/Pool Photo via AP)

People visit an exhibition at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in St.Petersburg, Russia, on Thursday, June 4, 2026. (Anatoly Maltsev/Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures as he arrives to attend a plenary session at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Friday, June 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

In this photo released by the Roscongress Foundation, Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, and Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan arrive to attend a plenary session at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Friday, June 5, 2026. (Vyacheslav Viktorov/Roscongress Foundation via AP)