Alun Wyn Jones is set to return for Wales against Argentina on Saturday and bring back some of the physical edge scrum-half Gareth Davies admits was missing against Australia.
Jones missed the supine opening autumn Test defeat to the Wallabies due to the recent death of his father, but the Ospreys captain is poised to replace Bradley Davies is the second row.
Sam Warburton and Jonathan Davies are also ready to come back into the side against the Pumas, although there are still doubts over full-back Liam Williams ahead of the team announcement on Thursday.
Wales are reeling from five successive Test reversals – their worst results sequence since the 2012-13 season – and conceding 26 tries in losing to England, New Zealand (three times) and now Australia.
“It comes down to winning the collisions first,” admitted Davies, who is set to continue at half-back in place of the injured Rhys Webb.
“The tempo was a big factor going into the Australia game, but we couldn’t get it going. We want to have a good tempo in the game we play.
“It’s been a tough couple of days in camp. Everyone came back in on Monday morning and we’ve been quite hard on ourselves. We are looking forward to the end of the week and hopefully putting things right against Argentina.
“It’s nice to have a game so quickly, especially after that type of performance against Australia. We just can’t wait to get out there and hopefully put things right.”
The Wales players have met and discussed what went wrong against Australia, and Davies added: “The boys put their hands up, in fairness to them. It was an honest meeting.
“There were a few bad decisions made against Australia and a few mistakes in attack. That’s why the boys are itching to get back out there this weekend, to make it right.
Davies proved a high-class replacement for Webb, who missed the tournament through injury, during last year’s World Cup, scoring five tries in five games as Wales reached the quarter-finals.
He has not started a Test since Wales were beaten by England in the RBS 6 Nations Championship eight months ago, but is likely to be among a number of changes following the 32-8 Wallabies drubbing.
Obviously, I am gutted for Webby,” Davies said. “He has had some bad luck with injuries over the last 12 months.
“But, hopefully, it’s an opportunity for me to get a bit of game-time and have an impact on the autumn series. I rate Webby, he is a great player, so it’s good to have competition in the squad – it keeps us on our toes.
“We have played our first game now, hopefully blown the cobwebs away, and on Saturday we can go out all guns blazing.”
If Williams is available, then that could mean Leigh Halfpenny moving from full-back to wing, and it might be Dan Lydiate who makes way for Warburton, with the Wales skipper packing down at blindside flanker, Justin Tipuric remaining at openside and Ross Moriarty continuing in the number eight role.
Recent history suggests they will start as favourites against the Pumas, having won four of the last five meetings, but it is likely to be far from straightforward.
