Rhys Priestland hopes Wales return enough for place against New Zealand, despite Georgia shambles

It was his first game for his country in more than a year

Priestland looked good at fly-half (Getty)

As returns to the international fold go, Saturday’s error-strewn encounter between Wales and Georgia hardly fell into the glorious category for fly half Rhys Priestland.

A Test match which will be remembered for the calamitous climax when Georgia’s dominant pack was denied one final chance to make mincemeat of their young Welsh opponents was not the one Priestland would have chosen to resurrect his international career prospects after more than a year in the wilderness.

He actually didn’t have a bad game. Three crisply taken kicks and some intelligent and sympathetic distribution from the back, as well as a superbly weighted pass to set Hallam Amos up for the game’s only try, means Priestland can actually reflect on a reasonable afternoon’s work. Not that he was in the mood to do so at the final whistle on Saturday.

“I am obviously pleased to be back here but I wish it had been a little bit different feeling afterwards,” Priestland said. “It is a very frustrating performance to be involved with. I was pleased to be back, I just wish I had made a better account of it.

“It was quite frustrating, obviously, we couldn’t pull away, we didn’t play as we had prepared and I have got to take responsibility for that because I am leading the team on the field. We knew what they were coming to do, it is very disappointing that we let them dictate the game that way.”

Priestland can hardly be blamed for a succession of decisions which at times hinted at arrogance and a lack of respect for the opposition, when Wales declined to take kicks at goal only to go for touch and botch the resulting line out. He was, after all, only following team orders.

But the overwhelming mood at the Principality Stadium after Warren Gatland’s men dodged a bullet which could have had terminal consequences for some was one of relief, frustration and mild embarrassment.

The handling of Tom Francis’ injury time sin binning, which left referee Mathieu Raynal with no choice but to call for uncontested scrums when Wales refused to return their rookie tight head prop Leon Brown to the fray, insisting he was injured, only compounded a sense that this was an afternoon Wales will wish to forget in a hurry. Whether World Rugby’s investigation into the circumstances surrounding Brown’s non-return-to-play allows them to do so, remains to be seen.

Hallam Amos scored Wales' only try (Getty)

Wales insiders are adamant that 21-year-old Brown - who spent the 15 minutes after half time being schooled in the art of front-row play by his grizzled opposite man Mikheil Nariashvili before being replaced by Francis – had suffered cramp during the game which worsened when he was replaced for tactical reasons.

This meant he was unable to return to play when Francis was sin binned and Georgia were forced to kick for touch, instead of deploying the scrum five metres from Wales line which could so easily have led to a match drawing tie.

For Priestland, he must now wait to see if he did enough to force his way into Wales’ matchday 23 to face New Zealand this Saturday in a match which will surely be played at a dramatically higher tempo to the turgid offering here.

“I am not too sure how much of a bearing this game will have on next week,” he said. “There were a lot of changes for this game and there will be a lot of changes again.

“We have been in this situation before when we have perhaps underperformed in the game against a tier two nation and everyone is doom and gloom and then, changes happen and the boys up their game because if you don’t up your game against the All Blacks it is going to be a very tough day at the office. I don’t think this will have much of a bearing on next week to be honest.”

Jonathan Davies suffered an ankle injury in the 29-21 defeat by the Wallabies (Getty)

He’d better hope he is right. One thing for certain is that Gatland will once again make sweeping changes to his starting line-up after Saturday’s experiment with youth so nearly backfired spectacularly.

Scrum half Rhys Webb is likely to return to the starting line-up after reasonable afternoon’s work following injury while Priestland could also find himself on the bench.

Scott Williams and Owen Watkin are battling it out to replace the injury-stricken Jonathan Davies at outside centre, although neither player did enough against Georgia to demand selection. This could be a difficult week for Wales.