Thoughts turn to autumn as Wales search

IT will be nearly five months before Welsh rugby fans begin discovering if the successful summer Test series with South Africa and Argentina was merely a flash in the pan or something tangible to take into the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

Because that’s when Scotland rock up to the Principality Stadium to kick off the 2018 autumn international series for an all-Celtic affair and the first staging of the Doddie Weir Cup.

Wales started playing four autumn Tests every year since 2002, apart from when there’s a World Cup on.

And the best they’ve achieved is three wins.

We assess the current shape of Wales’ four autumn international opponents and the prospect of heading into the 2019 Six Nations Championship with nine consecutive Test wins under the belt and a recordbreaking autumn series.

SCOTLAND (Saturday, November 3, 2.45pm)

WALES will break new ground by opening their autumn series with a historic fixture against Scotland -- the first top-tier northern hemisphere visitors to feature in the Tests since a four-match end-of-year campaign was introduced 17 years ago.

It will be only the second meeting between the countries outside the Five or Six Nations in the 135-year history of the fixture, with the first seeing Wales win a World Cup warm-up 23-9 in Cardiff in 2003.

And playing for Doddie Weir Cup, donated by the Welsh Rugby Union, is bound to add a certain poignancy to the occasion.

Weir, the hugely-popular former Scotland international and British & Irish Lion, is battling Motor Neurone Disease and, from the outset of his illness, he has been driven to help fellow sufferers and seek ways to further research into the, as yet, incurable condition.

Scotland have some painful memories of their last visit to Cardiff being thumped 34-7 in the opening game of the 2018 Six Nations. While Gregor Townsend’s side have produced some stirring performances at Murrayfield, their away record remains patchy at best.

No more so than this summer when losing 30-29 to the USA before bouncing back last weekend to beat Argentina 44-15.

AUSTRALIA (Saturday, November 10, 5.20pm)

WHILE New Zealand remain Welsh rugby’s nemesis, the Wallabies have provided nearly 10 years of hurt on