Wales v South Africa this weekend is less a sporting contest and more the rugby equivalent of Jake Paul stepping into the ring with Anthony Joshua — a lucrative mismatch that makes little competitive sense but pays just enough bills for everyone to pretend otherwise.
YouTuber Paul is trousering £70m for having his head jabbed off when he steps into the ring with Joshua next month.
The Welsh players will be sharing considerably less.
But this is not a fixture built around player welfare, competitive integrity or coherent planning.
It’s a commercial punt dressed up as opportunity.
Wales are without 13 England- and France-based players, the regions have been forced to surrender more bodies on the same weekend they each play URC matches – calling up children, nobodies and assorted waifs and strays to play professional sport - and the Springboks themselves arrive stripped of several megastars who have flown home.
READ MORE: Steve Tandy Warns Wales: Be Bold or Get Swallowed by Springboks
No one, in truth, benefits competitively.
But the WRU needs the gate receipts. And so the show goes on.
Even Dwayne Peel, whose bottom-placed Scarlets side must cope without multiple backs for their own crucial URC match, could only shrug.
“The fact we've got five backs in the (Wales) squad, it's a bit like, 'I wish we had those five backs in our big game against Glasgow',” he said.
“But we knew this fixture was coming well before last week. That's it.”
Crowds have wised up, too. Ticket sales have been sluggish, a clear response from a fanbase struggling to understand why Wales — battered, depleted and fragile — are being pitched against the most physically dominant team on the planet in an out-of-window payday Test.
But head coach Steve Tandy – as he rightly has to do - insists Wales must embrace what little upside exists.
“In any walk of life, what are we going to focus on? Are we going to be downbeat on something?
It's an opportunity for these boys, and for us as coaches to coach against South Africa,” he says.
“We've got to find ways of how we build that as well, do things slightly differently. I can't see how we go into it and be negative.”
READ MORE: South Africa Insist They are not Favourites to Beat Wales . . . No, Really, They Do
It is an admirably positive tone, if not entirely convincing.
Tandy has inherited a leaking defence, no permanent specialist defence coach, and a squad that has conceded 368 points in 10 matches — an average of 36.8 per Test.
Wales have shipped 50-plus twice this autumn alone. That is the scale of the challenge before even considering that the opponents are the reigning double world champions.
South Africa, too, are missing star names: Jesse Kriel, Cheslin Kolbe, Malcolm Marx and Pieter-Steph du Toit among those who have either business-classed it back home or to their payers in Japan.
Assistant coach Duane Vermeulen joked that he is “two injuries away from coming out of retirement.”
But the Springboks’ depth renders such absences almost cosmetic.
Rassie Erasmus still fields a side containing Siya Kolisi, Jasper Wiese, Damian de Allende, Damian Willemse and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
READ MORE: Steve Tandy Mines Deep into his Squad and Hopes for Wales Gold Against South Africa
Their bench alone carries more caps (374) than the entire Welsh matchday squad (306).
And yet, if anyone is trying to market this as a walkover, it is not Erasmus.
“I don't understand what is going on in the Welsh set-up, I do not understand the politics, what works and what doesn't work,” he says.
“Whatever's wrong off the field, [Wales] have the guts, players and willpower. I know deep in the belly of the Welsh, there is fight and somewhere it's going to come right.”
He spoke of Welsh resilience with fond admiration.
“There's something about the Welsh people. There's not a lot of people here but if you go outside [in Wales], you see some things of South Africa. Not everybody is wealthy and living a fantastic life, but they grind things out.”
Erasmus even recalled the times Wales have floored him, something Paul won’t do with Joshua.
READ MORE: Steve Tandy Admits Wales Must Improve to Stop Last Quarter Fade Outs
He remembers being “thrashed” in the Millennium Stadium opener in 1999, and defeats as a coach in 2018 as well as the nail-biting 2019 World Cup semi-final.
“That's how crazy it is,” he says.
“What do these guys have to lose? Other than manning up, putting a marker down and saying 'here we are' against the Springboks.”
But South Africa have also averaged 37 points and five tries per game this autumn, dismantling Japan, France, Italy and Ireland.
They still hit like wrecking balls, even with fringe players involved. The prospect of Wales’ patched-up, inexperienced, underpowered squad holding that dam for 80 minutes feels close to fantasy.
There have been flickers of hope in Tandy’s early tenure. The attacking shape installed by Matt Sherratt has produced 11 tries in three matches.
Wales even crossed four times against New Zealand — a historic achievement lost in the chaos of a 52-26 defeat.
Players have shown heart, even if the final scorelines remain grim.
But those positives exist in a different universe to the challenge awaiting a wekened team on Saturday.
South Africa’s power game is uncompromising and unflincing.
“They know exactly what that game is and they can adapt, but most of the time they don't need to,” adds Tandy .
“They've got the physicality and athleticism to back that gameplan up.”
And so the circus tent is assembled for a heavyweight champion against a middleweight stepping up four divisions because the promoter need cash.
This is a match arranged not because Wales are ready, not because the contest is fair, and not because rugby needs it.
It is a business decision. An accounting line. A financial injection disguised as Test match rugby.
Perhaps Wales will summon defiance. Perhaps South Africa, already on the plane home in their minds, will misfire.
Perhaps, as Tandy insists, “these boys” will seize their moment.
But the truth remains. This is Jake Paul vs Anthony Joshua in rugby form — entertaining for some, uncomfortable for others, but undeniably designed for one thing above all else.
