South Africa centre Jaque Fourie believes Wales will be dangerous opponents at the World Cup in 2011.
Springbok centre impressed by Gatland's squad
South Africa centre Jaque Fourie believes Wales will be dangerous opponents at the World Cup in 2011 after the Springboks' 34-31 win in Cardiff.
The Welsh had a great chance to defeat an under-strength South Africa side after taking an early 16-3 lead at the Millennium Stadium, but eventually slumped to their 11th successive defeat against Peter de Villiers' side.
But Fourie was impressed with Warren Gatland's men, and despite their poor record against southern hemisphere opposition expects them to play a big part in next year's tournament iin New Zealand.
"They will be a dangerous team in the World Cup," said the Stormers centre.
"We saw in the first 20 minutes and the last 20 minutes of this game that they were dangerous opponents. We were in trouble.
"I think they will be a force to be reckoned with at the World Cup.
"We knew we needed to show patience and do what we had trained to do.
Shock
"Wales came out in the first 20 minutes and went for us, but we re-evaluated the position and in the end we pulled it through.
"We got a shock in those first 20 minutes. We had to go back to the basics and do them better than what we had been - we didn't panic."
Meanwhile, Springbok skipper John Smit said he and his fellow forwards should have been rewarded for their domination at the scrum.
"I think for maybe a year or so the dominant scrum has not been getting rewarded," he said. "You see things like a scrum only collapsing on a certain team's ball, or in certain positions on the field.
"These are trends that are picked up on by players and by the people that watch the game.
"It's very frustrating and we expected more reward from the tight five we picked. We didn't help ourselves by jumping in at the first two or three scrums. We only have ourselves to blame for that."
