We would have struggled without Percy Montgomery South Africa coach Jake White Report: Wales 36-38 S Africa

"At 23-6 ahead I thought we had done enough, but Wales came back when most teams would have given up hope," he said after his side's 38-36 win.

"We started to get a bit fancy and maybe some players should have gone the conservative route.

"We haven't played for a while and I thought we were a bit rusty as a team."

White added: "I thought that we spilled the ball a lot, but we know where we went wrong and it is a good sign when you haven't played as well as you can but still got the win.

The coach also paid tribute to full-back Percy Montgomery, who plays his domestic rugby in Wales with Newport Gwent Dragons.

"I'm sure that we would have struggled without Monty. He constantly produces performances like that, and he deserves every accolade that he has received," White said.

We didn't play that well but hopefully next week we can play for 80 minutes Springbok lock Victor Matfield

"I am chuffed that we won, it would have been a disaster if we had lost the first game of this tour, but Wales proved to us that we have got to be on our toes.

"We want to win every Test match, and play to the best of our ability, and we will have learnt a lot from this game."

South Africa lock Victor Matfield, named man of the match, also admitted that his side had not been at their best.

"Wales played well," said Matfield. "Luckily it's a win. From now on we can just go forward and we're focusing on Ireland.

"I think we didn't play that well but hopefully next week we can play for 80 minutes."