Warren Gatland wants his Wales team to display “passion and desire” when they take on South Africa in their third and final Autumn Nations Series game at Principality Stadium at the weekend.
“I think the fans want to see some passion and desire and for the players to go out there and show what it means to put the red shirt on,” said Gatland.
“We normally have four games in the autumn, and we’ve tended to get better as the campaign has gone on. We probably haven’t demonstrated that at the moment, and so we need to go out and give a good performance on the weekend.
“There were times in against Australia where we maybe overplayed, went through too many phases on occasions and didn’t get enough go forward. We’ve spoken about it.
“When we were 19-0 down, the try that we scored was exactly the sort of positive stuff we want to see. There was real intent, physicality and gainline.
“The first three times we got into the opposition 22 we came away with points – seven points the first time and then three points each on the next two. We’ve got to make sure we’re a bit more clinical in terms of getting into the 22.
“It’s something that has been a little bit of an issue for us in the past – we’ve got there and not taken points. We’ve got to make sure we’re better in that area.
“From a control point, we probably needed to play a bit more territory last weekend to put Australia under pressure in their own half.”
There are five changes to the starting XV that fell to the Wallabies. Blair Murray moves into full back and Rio Dyer comes onto the wing for his first appearance for Wales this autumn.
Sam Costelow starts at outside half, while up front Taine Plumtree returns to the side to start at No. 8. Christ Tshiunza starts alongside Will Rowlands in the second row having come off the bench to replace the injured Adam Beard last weekend.
Gloucester’s Freddie Thomas is named among the Wales replacements, and he will win his first cap if he comes onto the field against the Springboks. Josh Hathaway has also been brought onto the bench.
“Aaron Wainwright has done really well. With a six-day turnaround, we wanted to freshen up some legs, which we’ve done with Taine Plumtree,” said Gatland
“It’s an opportunity for us to cap Freddie Thomas. He’s been training really well.
“Blair’s work-rate has been excellent in terms of wanting to get involved. We want to see how he goes in terms of 15. We’re really pleased with Tom Rogers and Rio has been training really well, so he gets an opportunity to come back and perform well.”
“Sam has been training exceptionally well. We’ve used Gareth in the first two games and now there’s a chance for Sam, perhaps with a bit less pressure on him,”added Gatland.
“He’s still a work in progress but we think he’s going to be a really good player for us going forwards. He gets the ball through his hands quickly and one of the things that’s pleased us most is that his kicking game has shown a huge improvement.
“He’s also brave and can be a running threat. We need to keep making sure we’ve got cover in that position in case we do pick up injuries.
“Gareth has picked up injuries over the last few years, so we’ve got to make sure we have depth.”
