International Match/Wales 12 South Africa 34:The last international of a busy year is a good moment for reflection. Rarely, if ever, has rugby union had the high profile it presently enjoys. Even a rogue Test match staged for purely financial reasons attracts 56,756 spectators. The club game continues to boom, albeit mainly in England and France. Football is not quite as sexy a rival product as it used to be. What are the reasons not to be cheerful?
In that sense it is an ideal time to stage this week's International Rugby Board forum in Woking, Surrey, when the game's great and good, plus a few hangers-on, will gather for three days to discuss where the sport should be heading in the next 10 years.
There are so many stakeholders that even agreeing on the type of biscuits to serve with the coffee could be problematic. With any luck, though, there will be instant recognition that rugby has to capitalise on its current good fortune.
The delegates could start, by way of teeing up the debate about a proposed world series which was suggested a while ago, by using Saturday's one-off occasion in Cardiff as a cautionary case study. In many ways its significance, as with Sherlock Holmes and the case of the silent dog in the night-time, centred around what did not happen.
A routine win for South Africa - or should that be a routine defeat for Wales? - was not, in itself, the most vital occurrence. If Test rugby is to preserve its mystique, the result has to matter considerably more than it did here.
There was also something else missing - the weather. Outside the stadium a chilly wind tugged at the collar and rain slicked the pavements. But inside the sealed lid of the national pleasure dome as usual all was calm. The new Welsh fullback, Morgan Stoddart, could trot out for his first cap confident that every high ball would descend in a predictable arc.
When Warren Gatland flies in next week to take over as Wales's new head coach it may be worth him investigating whether his team are inconsistent partly because the laboratory conditions they enjoy at home are conspicuously absent elsewhere. It is fine to play festival games indoors but a true Test match should be played outside.
Not that the closed roof helped much on Saturday. Even more than the World Cup, this may just be the game which finally convinces the Welsh that the game has moved on since the 1970s. South Africa were without several of their key men but still looked purposeful and committed to a game plan honed over several years. Wales, by contrast, possess some promising individuals but seemed to lack any sense of clear purpose beyond a preference for "parade-ground" rugby - left, right, left, right - without first getting over the gain line.
Gatland's gambit should be to take his squad far away from a rugby environment for a couple of days, clear their heads of the parochial clutter which continues to surround the game in Wales and preach the virtues of simplicity before any bells and whistles are attached.
He will also stress that they cannot expect instant improvements without a change of mind-set. It was all very well for Nigel Davies, whose lifespan as Welsh coach has been shorter than that of the average mayfly, to hail the potential good times ahead but he was closer to the truth in acknowledging the need to improve his country's defence, set-piece reliability, game management and attacking ruthlessness. That list leaves precious few laurels to rest on, which will be to Gatland's advantage. A clean piece of Welsh slate is essential if he is to build anything of lasting quality.
Respect is due to the Boks not just for the five tries they scored on Saturday, two of them from the centre Jaque Fourie, but for their commitment to winning the newly commissioned Prince William Cup at a time when their bodies are screaming for a break. The rock-hard Schalk Burger, John Smit, Bakkies Botha and Juan Smith are clearly men for all seasons.
No wonder Jake White looked so contented after his final game in charge. His coaching record of 36 wins and one draw from 54 Tests is not far behind Clive Woodward's ratio of 59 wins and two draws from 83 Tests and he leaves with reputation sky-high.
WALES: M Stoddart; M Jones, S Parker, G Henson, T Shanklin; J Hook, D Peel: G Jenkins (c), H Bennett, R Thomas, I Evans, A Wyn-Jones, C Charvis, R Sowden Taylor, J Thomas. Replacements: T Thomas, L Charteris for Peel, Bennett, Evans (53 mins); A Popham for Charvis (61 mins), D James, D Jones for Stoddart, R Thomas (68 mins); C Sweeney for Hook (75 mins), M Phillips.
SOUTH AFRICA: R Pienaar; JP PIetersen, J Fourie, F Steyn, B Habana; A Pretorius, R Januarie; CJ van der Linde, J Smit (c), J Du Plessis, B Botha, J Muller, S Burger, J Smith, R Kankowski. Replacements: A van den Berg for Botha (h-t); W Olivier for Pretorius (59 mins); J van der Merwe for Du Plessis (64 mins); B Du Plessis for van der LInde (74 mins); C Jantjes for Januarie (78 mins).
Referee: C White (England).
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