Wales back row Jac Morgan believes that his side are developing as a team and closing the gap on the very best nations in the world, following back-to-back defeats to Argentina and South Africa.

Steve Tandy’s side won their opening match of the Nations Championship in fine style against Fiji, but have been second best in losses to Los Pumas and the Springboks.

Despite those defeats, Wales have improved – at least in the scoreline – from their thrashings during Tandy’s first campaign in the autumn internationals.

For Morgan, closing that gap has been the silver lining.

“I think we are – or at least we hope we are,” said Morgan.

“You can see the progress we’ve made since the autumn.”

After victories over Italy and Fiji, Wales sit in 11th in the world rankings after Tandy’s first season in charge.

“The squad has developed, particularly with our performances against Scotland and Ireland during the Six Nations, and then the win over Italy,” added Morgan.

“We were pleased with the victory over Fiji at the start of the summer as well because we know how difficult they are to beat.

“We just have to keep developing and we’ve been doing that as a squad. There are still plenty of lessons to learn, but the more we play together, the more experience we gain and the more we can improve.”

Head coach Tandy struck a different tone, with his side failing to register a point in their last two matches against the double world champions.

“I am bitterly disappointed with the scoreline,” said Tandy.

“I commend the team around the effort, they stayed in the fight for large parts of the game.

“There’s massive pride in our players, how hard they work and the effort they put in, up against the world champions.”

Wales defended manfully, but struggled to exert any attacking pressure on the South African defence.

“It was pretty one-sided when it comes to us defending and getting the ball,” he admitted.

“Probably the one or two moments we did get an opportunity weren’t accurate enough.

“Whether it be a knock-on or whether there was space we didn’t take it and then we probably could have been a bit more ruthless when we had three or four penalties in a row, but we didn’t take that.

“South Africa are physical at the breakdown, they’re a well-oiled defensive unit as well.

“So there’s lots of things that we’ll have to get better at and grow again.”

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