Danny Wilson knows exactly what his forwards are walking into this weekend when Wales take on South Africa in Durban in the final match of the opening stage of the Nations Championship.

“This weekend is a very different challenge,” the Wales forwards coach said.

“The best set piece in world rugby, in my opinion. So we’re coming against a real challenge and one that we look forward to.”

South Africa in their own backyard, fresh from two victories over England and Scotland, are the ultimate stress test for a Welsh pack still finding its feet in the Nations Championship.

Wales arrive on the back of defeat to Argentina, with Wilson insisting standards are rising but admitting they “fell a little bit short” against an Argentina team that ran out 35-21 winners in San Juan.

The campaign started with promise, with an opening day victory over Fiji following on from the victory in the last Six Nations window.

“Getting off to two wins [including the Barbarians victory] off the back of the win in the last window, the Six Nations, was important for us to get that kind of winning habit or feeling or making sure we get over the line and understand international rugby is about winning,” Wilson said.

Fiji showcased what Wales want to be: confrontational and organised, able to squeeze opponents through set piece.

“Our Fiji performance was one that we were pleased with,” he added.

“Some further steps forward, dominated in certain areas that you need to against Fiji if you’re going to be able to pull off the win.”

But Argentina exposed soft edges, especially through the middle third of the game.

“Collectively we were a little bit disappointed with the performance and probably the middle third performance really, that sort of middle section of the game where we dropped off,” Wilson admitted.

“We’ve addressed and talked about that and looked at the positives from the game, but obviously drawn the negatives from what was a loss. Our standards, or our demands if you like, our expectations are going up.”

Up front, there are clear positives. The scrum has delivered penalties, the maul has become a genuine weapon. All three tries against Argentina came from front row forwards, with Rhys Carre scoring his fifth in six games.

“The scrum has produced a number of penalties and some dominant performances,” Wilson said.

“We scored a number of driving lineouts now and used that as a weapon. We’re kind of confident to kick to the corner and use that.”

Whether that armoury holds up against the Springboks is the question.

“From a lineout point of view, we still want to be able to use our lineout weapon in the different formats, but we’ve got to be pretty clever with it because we’re playing against a very formidable lineout defence,” Wilson warned.

“In terms of dealing with their lineout, the Springboks have some unbelievable athletes. They’re very effective drive as well. The challenge at scrum, we’ve seen a very powerful scrum.

“Squad depth allows them to really move and rotate people around. It’s quite impressive the depth they now have.”

For Wilson, this is about more than surviving 80 minutes in Durban. It is about proving that Wales’ evolving “game model” stands up to the harshest scrutiny.

“We’ll focus on ourselves,” he said.

“Making sure that we understand how we execute our game model and grow our game model is an important part of our development.

“There’s no better test than away from home against South Africa.”

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