ANDY HOWELL

THEY will be breathing a sigh of relief at the Welsh Rugby Union headquarters in the wake of a morale-boosting 27-13 victory over a new-look South Africa at the Principality Stadium.

For it means the power brokers won’t have to address the thorny issue of coaching, with the clamour for change from public and pundits having been muted by a satisfactory performance.

Chairman Gareth Davies and chief executive Martyn Phillips preferred to keep their counsel in the wake of Wales being thrashed by Australia, scraping a win over Argentina and, in the words of caretaker coach Rob Howley, being undeserved victors against minnow Japan last weekend.

Now they may feel they don’t need to break cover to give Welsh supporters the answers they have demanded in the wake of some pretty flat and uninspiring performances.

Although this match provided overwhelming evidence Wales were up against one of the worst Spring- bok teams in history, Wales still made hard work of beating them for only the third time in 32 attempts after failing to kick on in the second half, having built a 20-6 lead.

The crisis-torn Springboks battled back to reduce the deficit to seven points but Wales openside flanker Justin Tipuric put the icing on his man-of-the-match performance when he timed his burst on to replacement Taulupe Faletau’s flat pass to perfection to pierce the defence before side-stepping full-back Johan Goosen for a superb try.

That score gave a true relection of the margin between the countries and has surely bought the underpressure Howley more time.

Any thought of him not leading Wales into next year’s Six Nations will almost certainly have been put on the back-burner.

But it must be stated Wales are still short of confidence despite equalling their record, achieved in 2002 under Steve Hansen, of winning three out of four matches during an autumn campaign, and are in need of further improvement if they are to hone a more expansive game-plan into a winning one against the likes of Eng- land and Ireland.

Their opening assignment next February in the Six Nations, against Italy in Rome, could be a real banana skin, with history showing the Azzurri are dangerous opponents on home soil at the start of the European championship.

If Wales can come through that encounter – Italy last weekend beat the Springboks for the first time but were pipped by Tonga yesterday – the acid test will come the following week in Cardiff against an England team unbeaten in its last 13 matches.

It must be said Wales will have to go up two or three gears if they are to trouble the Six Nations Grand Slam kings, both at forward and by being far more precise and creative in their backs.

Was this month Wales?

Yes, in terms of results, but there’s still plenty of work still to be done to get players thinking in harmony when it comes to executing a gameplan that requires vision, skill, speed – at the breakdown and with the ball a success for – and support runners for it to flourish.

England, who have beaten Australia, South Africa and Argentina (comfortably with 14 men for most of a brutal encounter) in the last few months, and Ireland, winners over world champions South Africa, New Zealand and Australia during the same period, seem to be far ahead in the intensity, pace and precision with which they both play.

But how’s this for a statistic? Wales have won seven of their last eight fixtures when Howley has been in command, in 2013 and this season.

However, they are streets below the level which saw them demolish England by a record 30-3 to pinch the Six Nations title off them three years ago.

And it’s that standard they must attain in the coming months to enhance the prospects of a healthy number of Welsh players making the Lions tour of New Zealand at the end of the campaign – with England and Ireland’s best having stolen a march on them.