Now for the clean sweep says Liam

LIAM WILLIAMS challenged Wales to complete a first Autumn clean sweep by overcoming South Africa on Saturday after he marked his 50th cap with two tries in a 74-24 thrashing of Tonga.

Wales have won their last eight matches but have never emerged from their November series with four straight wins.

“It was very emotional,” said the 27-year-old of his milestone game.

“When Dan Biggar said congratulations to me as I ran out for the anthems, I had to fight back the tears. To win my 50th cap is a great honour.

“To score two tries makes it a superb afternoon. We had a great first 20, but then I thought we took our foot off the gas and let Tonga back into the game. We came out in the second half with all guns blazing.

“We knew it would open up and Tonga would tire

and we took advantage of that. With the first try I just tried to stay in the air for as long as possible. It wasn’t a bad one!

“It’s three wins from three now which is superb and whoever is picked next week will look to go out there and make it four from four. That would be amazing.”

Wales have won their last three games against South Africa and the home side are on their best run since the 2004-05 season.

Head coach Gatland said: “We started off exceptionally well and then we had 20 minutes where we put ourselves in a bit of a hole. We dug ourselves out of it in the second half with some outstanding rugby.

“Self-belief and confidence is a massive thing and we have that now. It would be nice to have a clean sweep in the autumn and start thinking about the Six Nations. We have had some good success over South Africa in recent years, so it will be important for us to build on that.”

Fly-half Biggar scored 19 points to move up to fifth in the all-time Wales points scoring chart.

The Northampton Saints man has played second fiddle to Gareth Anscombe this November and will hope he has done enough to wear the No.10 shirt against the Springboks after a man of the match display. He said: “I think today shows how we want to play moving forward.

“We spoke in the week about tiring Tonga down and coming through in the end and it panned it exactly as we thought. It would be nice to get a clean sweep this autumn.

“You want to win every game and especially with the run we’re on now, it would be really nice after the summer tour to go unbeaten in the autumn.

“It’s always great to pull this jersey on. Hopefully there are a few more points and games to come.”

Tonga captain Siale Piutau admitted his team were outclassed and believes Wales are contenders to lift the World Cup in Japan next year. He said: “The Welsh opened the game up in the second half and their tempo was impressive. We have to give full credit to them.

“They are definitely contenders for the World Cup.”