The wisdom of Warren Gatland's six-year contract extension remains questionable © PA Photos

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So now we know what it takes for Wales to beat South Africa - empty seats and plenty of them. For the images of hard-hatted workmen jumping for joy on the as-yet untenanted Millennium Stadium terraces in 1999 read that massive Red Dragon which concealed a vast swathe of unsold seats at one end of the ground in 2014.

Falling 15,000 short of capacity for a visit of the Springboks should, but one suspects will not, make the Welsh Rugby Union think hard about the constant overkill of scheduling four autumn internationals.

And those who were not there certainly missed something, although it may not quite come into the Agincourt class of events which lead the absent to 'think themselves accursed they were not there'.

It was a hugely important result for Wales, and most of all for Warren Gatland - stabilising his situation and ending any suggestion that he might not make it to the World Cup.

The wisdom of the six-year extension to his contract remains highly questionable, but a belated big-three scalp makes him vastly less vulnerable in the event of one of the mediocre Six Nations campaigns which have cropped up periodically among the Grand Slams for which his tenure will be remembered.

It was a victory which had many of the stigmata of the tantalising defeats which have come before it. There were the blown line-outs and the failure to take advantage when the opposition is reduced to 14 men - although Cornal Hendricks was arguably unlucky, such considerations never stop the All Blacks making the most of it. There was also a tragi-comic cock-up at the end when Scott Williams needlessly tried to play a ball heading only for deadball territory and allowed the Boks a final five-metre scrum.

There'd have been plenty to pick over had we seen yet another possible win dribble away, so why didn't it ?

One reason is that the Boks looked jaded and out of ideas even before the loss of Jean de Villiers with a nasty-looking knee injury. In those final few minutes there was never any sense, as there always is with the All Blacks and the Wallabies, that they might conjure something from nothing.

However, you play as well as you are allowed to. That the Boks looked so ordinary was down to a heroic effort by the 17 men - Gatland keeping his substitutions, and the potential disruption they represent in the later stages of a close game to a minimum - who played for Wales.

Chief among them was Dan Biggar, emerging after a longish apprenticeship as an authentic international outside-half. True, he will never be a Barry John or a Jonathan Davies, but nor were Neil Jenkins and Steve Jones, the most durable and productive Welsh outside-halves of the professional era.

Biggar's qualities on the big occasion are well established. There was the extraordinary touchline conversion which claimed the Celtic League title for Ospreys in a final played on the home ground of opponents Leinster, and a series of solid displays in Wales's 2013 championship campaign.

But there was always a sense of Wales waiting for somebody more exciting to come along, or at the very least of Gatland waiting for Rhys Priestland to recapture the form that he showed at the 2011 World Cup.

The job is now Biggar's, the reward for the ferocious physical commitment shown in a series of tackles which stopped huge Bok forwards and the confidence epitomised by a sequence of brilliant takes from high balls in the first few minutes. He is still occasionally prone to kick decent possession away, but his composure and control in the big moments of this match were exemplary.

It doubtless helps that he is playing outside his Ospreys partner Rhys Webb, another player who should have nailed down his place for the Six Nations, his speed of pass giving the midfield the extra split-second which makes all the difference at this level.

Both were of course the beneficiaries of some magnificent performances by their forwards, which peaked in the extraordinary spectacle of a Springbok scrum in full retreat. That was a one-off, but the drive and commitment which made it happen were to be seen throughout the match.

Samson Lee slew every Goliath placed in his path, Alun Wyn Jones' early aggression set the standard for Welsh play during the afternoon and Sam Warburton was an immense presence at the breakdown, where the Boks never really managed to build on their early ascendancy.

The Boks were under constant pressure. When a player of the class of Willie Le Roux fumbles twice you know that he is physically and mentally tired, but also that the team playing against him has helped make him that way.

There's a long way to go to the World Cup and I'd still not bet, unless offered very good odds, on Wales getting out of a group containing the hosts and the team that always seems to beat them. One swallow does not, as we are always reminded, make a summer. But this victory will mean that Wales go into winter feeling a whole lot better.

Jean de Villiers went off with a dislocated knee © PA Photos

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