Jenkins urges wounded Welsh to play ‘smarter’

GETHIN JENKINS has claimed Wales must be “a bit smarter” as they dust themselves down and prepare for Saturday’s Millennium Stadium appointment with world champions South Africa.

Wales have lost their past 11 Tests against the Springboks, conceding almost 370 points in the process.

But they could be reinforced by the return from a broken hand of their British and Irish Lions full-back Lee Byrne, while last season’s Wales skipper Ryan Jones will be reassessed in his battle to overcome a torn calf muscle.

A superb attacking display made up for Australia’s scrummaging deficiencies as they edged their hosts 25-16.

David Pocock went over for an early try and Stephen Jones landed two penalties as the Wallabies led 7-6 at half-time.

Young winger James O’Connor set up man-of-the-match Kurtley Beale and Ben Alexander for two more Aussie tries. Wales’ Richard Rees touched down with 10 minutes left to make it 16-22 but O’Connor’s second penalty sealed it.

It was another sobering loss against top southern hemisphere opposition – a 10th from 11 attempts since coach Warren Gatland took charge. Lions Test prop Jenkins though, believes Wales can fix the problem areas.

“We missed a few key opportunities. Our game-plan was to keep it quite tight and work them up-front, and we had a little bit of success. We’ve done a lot of scrummaging the past two weeks, pretty much every day. We knew it was going to be a big part of the game, and going forward over the next few weeks. We could have perhaps pushed our dominance home a bit more, but at the end of the day we didn’t stack up enough in defence.

“There was a big emphasis on taking out their seven (David Pocock). We know how good he is in that area (breakdown) and for most parts of the game we did the job, but a few times we didn’t and they capitalised.

“We’ve got to work on switching on from any turnovers and getting back in the (defensive) line. Once we lost the ball, we sort of switched off a bit and they punished us. We knew we had a bit of dominance up front, but we also knew how strong they were out wide and how clinical they would be if we weren’t on the ball in defence.

“I think we can just be a bit smarter in the way we play sometimes.”

Wales have added Wasps number eight Andy Powell to their squad ahead of next weekend’s clash. The 29-year-old has not played for Wales since last season’s Six Nations victory over Scotland. Powell was then suspended from the Wales squad after he was charged with driving a golf buggy while over the limit from Wales’ training base in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Jean de Villiers is a doubt for South Africa having left the pitch after 67 minutes of the Springboks’ 23-21 win over Ireland in Dublin.