Graham Price: Wales have a chance in Australia but this is what has to improve immediately

In the end Wales put up a decent fight against South Africa but what was the point of arranging that game?

If maximising revenue was the motivation, one would have thought that filling the Principality Stadium with Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen fans would have provided the scope to allow a more suitable opponent for a struggling Wales team rather than the current world champions. This tour of Australia will be tough, so a game against a team which is more suitable for our needs at our stage of development in the run up to the tour would have been more appropriate.

It was outside the World Rugby international window and we were going to be short of a number of our most important players. If it was supposed to be a trial before the final selection of the tour party, however, it would have been more appropriate for the younger players to have the opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities against a team of a similar standing.

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This type of game benefitted South Africa more than it benefited us. It was their first game back since the World Cup final and, in that respect, they were a little ring rusty, and far from their best form. I was hoping for signs of improvement in our scrummaging, relatively speaking of course, but we only fielded one member of the front five who played during the Six Nations.

Defensively Gareth Thomas was one of our top tacklers and Dewi Lake was probably our standout player but they were part of our front row that was at times demolished by the Springboks. Their recycling was much better than ours and they created a lot more scoring opportunities than we did.

We worked hard, under the circumstances, and we should be given full credit for that, but were never a serious threat to a far superior team. We were outclassed by a Springbok side just going through the motions and treating the game more as a training exercise. To be fair, in that respect, South Africa hardly broke into a sweat for much of the game.

I suppose the fact that we were not beaten by a higher score stands testimony to the resolve that went into our defence. However, our discipline wasn’t to the standards that we reached during the Six Nations. In fact it was rather disappointing for us to have Rio Dyer and Aaron Wainwright yellow carded. But to prevent South Africa from taking advantage while we were down to 13 men for almost 10 minutes and preventing them from scoring during this period, really was creditworthy in itself.

The judgement of our performance against South Africa needs to be tempered by realism. While credit can be paid to the team for the battling display we had a hiding up-front and if Warren Gatland wants to win a Test in Australia the forwards will have to be a lot better.

I understand why Gatland tried Mason Grady at 12 but as far as I'm concerned there are still question marks surrounding his suitability to that position. What is not a question mark is there was no evidence, in the game, to show that there has been any improvements on our weaknesses that caused us to be bottom of last season’s Six Nations with the scrum in particular a going concern.

Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I would say that the Australia tour will assume greater importance in as much as any experiments will not be conducted under the same pressure as on Saturday. They are, also, in a similar position as we are.

Australia have a new coach in Joe Schmidt who is no mug. He will have experiments of his own he will wish to conduct in order to help his team recover after their disappointing performance at the World Cup.

I would say that with our previously unavailable players Dafydd Jenkins, Christ Tshiunza, Tommy Reffell, Nick Tompkins, Archie Griffin, Josh Hathaway and Dillon Lewis we should start the tour just about even other than Australia’s home advantage.

The areas of the team we really need to get right is the front row but frustratingly we have injury problems which are disrupting our opportunities to determine who wants the positions most. Henry Thomas and Keiron Assiratti could have battled it out on tour for the tighthead position.

We had a real beating in the scrums on Saturday but we're not going to experience anything like the same pressure from the Australian front row. Of the remaining front row forwards, I would expect Thomas, Lake and Lewis to form the starting front row. But the others must be given their opportunities. However, they are all very inexperienced at international level and in the front row experience counts.

The second row I expect will comprise Jenkins and, probably, Ben Carter after his impressive defensive performance on Saturday. The backrow once again has proved to be a major strength.

We seem to be able to produce quality backrow forwards at will. Reffell will be available with Taine Plumtree or perhaps James Botham making up the backrow alongside Wainwright who will pack down at No 8.

It would have been better if the Queensland Reds game could have been scheduled at the start of the tour with the Test team places up for grabs. We don’t appear to have a ready-made replacement for Sam Costelow at outside half which is a big concern, although Ben Thomas has been playing very well for Cardiff and could slot in at 10.

Ellis Bevan would have learned a real lesson from Faf de Klerk which will benefit his development in the long-run. It wasn’t a fair competition operating behind a beaten pack but Australia will not provide the same strength up front.

In respect of the rest of our backs we have great versatility and Gatland has got a better opportunity to see Grady as a 12. There is, also, the unknown quantity, relatively speaking, of Regan Grace.

He is an outstanding scorer of tries in rugby league but his experience in rugby union is extremely limited. It will be interesting to see if he can make a successful transition to international rugby union.