Warren Gatland said Wales’ record defeat to South Africa in Cardiff had made his World Cup selection task easier.
Gatland names his 33-man World Cup squad on Monday on the back of a chastening 52-16 thumping to the Springboks.
After two warm-up games against England, in which Wales won once and lost once and generally saw the reputation of their young team enhanced, Gatland’s side were dismantled by opponents boasting 659 Test caps to their 235.
South Africa’s victory – the first time Wales have conceded 50 points under Gatland – comfortably eclipsed their previous biggest win in Cardiff – a 34-12 in 2007.
Asked if the game had answered a lot of questions on his World Cup selection before next month’s tournament in France, head coach Gatland said: “I think so. We’ll go back to the hotel, sit down as coaches and hopefully finalise it.
“If we need to have more discussion hopefully we can do that on Sunday. Possibly some of those questions that we’ve got would have made it a little bit easier for our discussions.
“It was disappointing. I thought we were dominated physically on both sides of the ball.
“We’d spoken to the players about the physicality they’d bring and playing against the world champions. They’d just come out of a Rugby Championship.
“The only positive I can take is hopefully there’s a lot of learning that some of those players will have got from it.”
Experienced trio Alex Cuthbert Dan Biggar and Liam Williams all dropped out of the original team with minor injuries.
Wales have more pressing concerns on the injury front with hookers Dewi Lake and Ryan Elias, second row forward Dafydd Jenkins and back-rower Taine Plumtree all picking up knocks during the August matches.
Gatland also has to make calls on number eight Taulupe Faletau and outside-half Gareth Anscombe, who did not feature in the three games.
On Faletau and Anscombe, Gatland said: “I think they are in contention because of their experience.
“If they were a young player it would be very, very difficult to select them, but given their vast amount of experience they will definitely be part of those discussions.
“Part of the thing we wanted to do was everyone take part in training this week to build confidence.
“When you have a defeat like that, it’s about how do you look at the positives when you are reviewing it as a group.
“There’s some easy fixes in terms of probably four or five of those tries are easy enough to stop and then all of a sudden there’s a different complexion on the game.”
Gatland was critical of the 34th-minute yellow card given to Rio Dyer when Wales trailed 12-9.
Dyer batted a loose ball away from Canan Moodie as he closed in on a try, but replays appeared to show that it had hit the hand of the Springboks wing first. A penalty try was awarded and South Africa scored 12 points with the wing off the field.
“I thought Rio Dyer was really unlucky to have a yellow card and a penalty try because the angles we’ve looked at we are 100 per cent certain it’s touched the green player,” said Gatland.
“For me that’s a pretty tough call and we’ve conceded straight away from the kick-off. It was an important moment in terms of the way the game went.”
South Africa find themselves in arguably the toughest World Cup pool with Ireland, Scotland and Tonga for company.
The Springboks start the defence of the trophy they won in Japan four years ago against Scotland in Marseille on September 10.
“We have to get better in France,” said South Africa head coach Jacques Nienaber after his side’s eight-try show in Cardiff.
“We are on the side of the draw that is knock-out from game one. Just to get out of pool we have to be on form.”
Townsend sure Scotland have more to show after superb win over Australia
Gregor Townsend insists Scotland can still play better despite ending their 2024 calendar on the high of an impressive 27-13 win over Australia at Murrayfield.
Finn Russell surpassed 400 Test points after scoring one of four Scotland tries and kicking seven points in a game where Scotland led by 21 points at one stage.
Head coach Townsend was delighted to send supporters home happy but was not happy with all aspects of his side's performance on Sunday.
"If you catch me in 10 minutes I'll be in a better mood. There was more in us. We weren't as accurate in the first half," he told BBC Sport.
"It shows we can get a win when we're not playing as well. There were moments in the game that I loved. We saw what it meant to our supporters to get a win against a quality team.
"We're better than some of the aspects today, but I'm proud that the players found a way to win.
"I'm inwardly happy, but if there was a game next week it would be a tough review and there would be a lot of things to improve."
Captain Sione Tuipulotu crossed in the first half for Scotland, who led 7-3 at the break after Noah Lolesio's had put Australia in front.
The hosts took command after the break with Duhan van der Merwe, Josh Bayliss and Russell going over in the second half.
Wing wizard Harry Potter scored on his Australia debut to add some credit to the scoreline for the visitors and Scotland showed great defensive resolve after that to ensure no more points were conceded.
Skipper Tuipulotu collected the Hopetoun Cup in front of his grandmother and said: "It was an amazing moment. When she handed over the cup she said 'you got 'em!'
"I'm super happy and it makes the day all worthwhile, when we win like that. We won playing our rugby, we scored some brilliant tries. We know how dangerous our back three is but it was a group effort today and that's what I'm most pleased about."
Robertson makes overseas players plea after New Zealand labour versus Italy
New Zealand head coach Scott Robertson has said he wants to see overseas-based players become eligible for the All Blacks after his side laboured to a 29-11 win over Italy.
The visitors recorded their 18th straight win against Italy to wrap up their autumn series, but Robertson's side were made to work for the victory in Turin in flanker Sam Cane's final Test for the team, ahead of his switch to play club rugby in Japan.
Speaking after the game, Robertson said he would ask New Zealand Rugby to follow in the footsteps of world champions South Africa and allow those playing outside domestic competitions to be eligible for the national team.
"We don't want to be a cycle behind or a couple of years behind," Robertson said.
"Professional rugby is always evolving. Let's keep an open mind and see what's next. I'll definitely be presenting.
"Using South Africa as an example, they get the opportunity to use a lot of experienced players who are looked after and managed well into their 30s so they've got a great balance.
"And they've got big squads, they can have two really quality 15s."
Gatland future up in the air after Wales suffer 12th consecutive loss
Wales head coach Warren Gatland did not have answers about his future following their 45-12 defeat to South Africa, their 12th consecutive loss.
The Springboks dominated from the off and were cruising 26-0 just before half-time, after Franco Mostert, Eben Etzebeth, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Elrigh Louw crossed.
Rio Dyer's try before the break ensured Wales did not draw a blank in the first half, but South Africa did not let up as Aphelele Fassi, Gerhard Steenenkamp and Jordan Hendrikse all followed suit.
James Botham's late effort ensured Wales did not suffer their worst-ever home defeat, but they have now gone an entire calendar year without a win for the first time since 1937.
Gatland has come under increasing pressure as the losses pile up, and though his future remains up in the air, he was proud of how his inexperienced side held up against the world champions.
"It's about seeing what the Welsh Rugby Union has to say," he told TNT Sports when asked about his future.
"You don't make a decision straight after a game, it's always tough coming to a press conference straight after a game before you've had time to catch your breath and look at some of the stats and numbers.
"Let's just see what happens over the next few days."
On their recent run of form, he added: "We punched massively above our weight for a number of years, and we've been saying that when the dam bursts it's going to take a little bit of time to put things right.
"The dam has burst, but it's about making sure that, collectively, with the regions we work together.
"I think we need to be in better shape in a conditioning point of view. We will work on that with some of the players over the next couple of months, so when they turn up for the Six Nations, they're ready to go from day one."
South Africa have won each of their last three Tests, building on their wins over Scotland and England earlier in the series.
Captain Siya Kolisi was pleased with their ruthlessness in the game but also sympathised with Gatland's situation.
"It's been a really good tour," he told TNT Sports. "It hasn't been perfect, the first two games we weren't happy - happy we won, but there was so much we could have done better.
"The results are important, but it's how you do things, the standards we set for ourselves. We know we can do a little bit better as a group.
"We were where Wales are a couple of years ago.
"The only thing I can say is you just can't stop believing. If you look at their starting backline, one of our guys had more caps than all of them. You have to be realistic about these things."
Elsewhere, Ireland produced their most convincing win of their series, scoring eight tries as they cruised past Fiji 52-17 in Dublin earlier on Saturday.
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