Shaun Edwards wants Wales to be judged based on performance against South Africa

Wales defence coach Shaun Edwards has come in support of interim coach Rob Howley after their performance in the autumn internationals has drawn a lot of criticism.

Since their 67-14 victory over Italy in the Six Nations tournament, Wales have been whitewashed 0-3 by New Zealand and also lost to England 27-13.

Their autumn internationals started with one of their heaviest defeat at home to Wallabies but they managed to edge out Argentina and Japan with South Africa lined up as their next opponent. Wales' previous three-match winning streak in autumn internationals came way back in 2002 when they defeated Japan, Canada and Romania.

In the game against Japan, the scores were levelled at 30-30 until the final minute when a drop goal from Sam Davies secured a three-point victory for Wales following which flanker Dan Lydiate admitted that his team were left licking the wounds after Saturday's performance.

"You know when you are in this position as a national coach, you have to block everything out," defence coach Edwards said of the criticism that has come Howley's way since Welsh blushes were spared by Davies' last-minute drop-goal against Japan.

"You continue doing your job, what you are trying to do.

"Rob has only been in one Six Nations (when Gatland was on a similar sabbatical ahead of the 2013 Lions tour to Australia) and he has won it.

"He has a 100 per cent winning record, he is an excellent coach with his attention to detail."

In the overall 31 encounters played between the two teams, Wales have managed to defeat the Springboks only on two occasions. However, in their last clash at Millennium Stadium in 2014, Wales emerged victorious by six points.

Edwards, who played for Great Britain 36 times, insisted that Wales' performance against South Africa on Saturday will decide on the success of their autumn internationals.

"The success or relative failure (of the autumn) will depend on whether we win on Saturday," Edwards said.

"It's been said in the past we've played Australia many times and lost by one point.

"We've played fantastic, but we've lost. It's all about winning and we've won two tight games.

"Have we played as well as wanted to on Saturday? No, we didn't.

"But we're going into a cup final this week against a team ranked higher than us and they've got what we want, which is that fourth ranked position."

South Africa have not been in best of form as seen in their defeats to England and Italy and their encounter against Barbarians too ended in a 31-31 draw. However, Edwards is wary of the threat they possess.

"They don't like playing in the wet, you saw that against England," Edwards said.

"But any team that's got Willie le Roux and Eben Etzebeth in it has got my respect.

"We've got to cut our errors and turnovers down. But if we tighten our game up, limit our turnovers and Leigh Halfpenny keeps kicking as well as he has done, I don't think we'll be too far away."

Bradley Davies has been released from the Wales squad following a knee injury while Taulupe Faletau and Ken Owens are available for selection.