Warren Gatland believes it was mission accomplished in terms of testing Wales’ strength in depth against the Tongans.
The Wales coach was happy with the impact of his bench in their emphatic 74-24 victory at the Principality Stadium after the Pacific Islanders had briefly threatened an upset.
Tonga were level at 24-24 early in the second half having scored 21 unanswered points in the second quarter of the game, but the introduction of scrum-half Aled Davies, lock Cory Hill and replacement fly-half Rhys Patchell saw Wales romp to an eighth Test win in a row.
“If you look at the game in segments, we started exceptionally well, we got ourselves into a bit of a hole then dug ourselves out of it with an outstanding second-half performance,” said Gatland.
“I thought the bench was good again. As a collective group, they should be pretty proud of that.
“We have spoken in the past about trying to get momentum from the bench and they are really upping it. I thought they made a significant impact.”
Dan Biggar scored a try and kicked 14 points in a solid display with the boot, earning praise from his coach, while the equally impressive Patchell excelled when he came on.
Both are pushing Gareth Anscombe, who started the first two games of the autumn international series, for a starting place in next weekend’s home clash with South Africa.
“The pleasing thing is that all our 10s are playing well. We have been pleased with Gareth and Rhys was excellent when he came on,” Gatland said.
“In a number of positions, we have some strength in depth and some real selection headaches.”
Gatland knows that the Springboks will supply arguably the side’s toughest test this month as they build towards the World Cup in Japan next year.
“They have gone back to traditional South African rugby, physical players, direct, it is going to be a real challenge for us,” he added.
“The good thing about where we are is that we are building our self-belief and confidence.
“We have had some good success over South Africa in recent years. It is important for us to hopefully build on that and it will be nice to have a clean sweep in the autumn.”
Wales extended their unbeaten run to eight games by crushing Tonga 74-24 at the Principality Stadium.
Gatland’s men overcame a brief scare when they saw an 18-point lead wiped out by the visitors, who drew level just after half-time, before Wales resumed normal service and cut loose.
An early penalty try was folowed by touchdowns for fly-half Biggar, who contributed 19 points, and wing Liam Williams on his 50th Wales appearance.
But Tonga, beaten on all eight previous encounters against Wales, responded impressively through tries for locks Leva Fifita and Steve Mafi, before Saracens number eight Sione Vailanu powered over from close range.
Newcastle scrum-half Sonatane Takulua converted all three tries and kicked a penalty, but Wales pulled away during the final 30 minutes.
The hosts added tries from wing Steff Evans, scrum-half Tomos Williams, another from Liam Williams, centre Tyler Morgan, plus replacements Cory Hill, Aled Davies and Rhys Patchell, while Patchell kicked four conversions.
Wales’ winning sequence is their longest since the 2004-05 season, while victory over South Africa next weekend would complete a first autumn Tests clean sweep.
Despite Gatland making 14 changes from the side that claimed a first victory for 10 years over Australia last Saturday, Wales were ultimately far too strong as they posted their highest points total since beating Namibia 81-7 during the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand.
