Taulupe Faletau insists Wales need to develop certain areas of their game after his side came from behind in the second half to beat Italy 38-18 at Parc y Scarlets.
The hosts had started the brighter of the two sides, with Kieran Hardy and Sam Parry crossing to give Wales the lead.
Tries from Marco Zanon and Johan Meyer either side of the break had briefly given Italy the lead, before a trio of Welsh scores from Gareth Davies, George North and Justin Tipuric ensured the win for Wayne Pivac’s men.
Player of the Match Faletau was back to his best in Llanelli but said Wales let their “foot off the gas” before fighting back to defeat the Azzurri and finish fifth in the Autumn Nations Cup.
“This is what we wanted to do today as a team – we wanted the result we got today,” said the Bath Rugby No.8.
“But there’s still parts of our performances we need to work on and we want to keep improving. We spoke at half-time [about letting them back into the game].
“We scored a couple of tries and maybe took our foot off the gas and allowed Italy back in the game. We’re pleased with the result and we’ll work on the performance.
“The youngsters are very exciting, they have the skill set and are athletic – it’ll do them good to get game time during this camp. I’m sure they’ll push on and get many more.”
In Wales’ final game of 2020, Pivac’s men burst out of the gates the quickest with scrum-half Hardy scoring his team’s first try in the seventh minute after capitalising on good work from Tipuric.
Parry doubled Wales’ lead before the quarter-hour mark but Italy hit back through Paolo Garbisi’s three-pointer and then Marco Zanon collecting Carlo Canna’s neat kick in behind the Welsh defence.
Wing Josh Adams’s yellow card then gave Garbisi a kick a goal to reduce the deficit to a single point before the break.
Callum Sheedy’s penalty after the interval extended Wales’ advantage until Meyer’s sensational work saw the back-rower touch down in the corner to put Italy ahead.
But Wales took control on the hour mark, with replacement No.9 Davies’ try regaining the lead for the hosts before the experienced duo of North and Tipuric crossed towards the end.
Try-scorer Tipuric credited the work of the pack in providing Wales the freedom to play in the second half and was impressed by the team’s perseverance.
“The front five gave us the front-foot ball and got us over the gain line to provide us the speed to play off,” said the open-side flanker.
“All week we spoke about being physical and we did that in the second half.
“It’s not an easy thing to do to bring fresh faces in. We had Aaron Wainwright in the second row and Elliot Dee on the flank at the end, it wasn’t ideal but we came away with a 20-point margin.
“It showed the type of team we are, we don’t give in and will fight until the very end.”
