SOUTH African ace Ruan Pienaar believes Leigh Halfpenny holds the key to Wales having a successful autumn.

While much of the pre-Dove Men Series attention has been on scrummaging fears in the absence of tighthead Adam Jones and whether Justin Tipuric will start at openside rather than skipper Sam Warburton, the goalkicking debate has calmed down.

A feature of the Six Nations was whether it would by fly-half Rhys Priestland or full-back Leigh Halfpenny that would have the responsibility from the tee.

A number of bad misses by the Scarlets number 10 meant that it was the Cardiff Blues number 15 that ended up being the man in the spotlight – and he thrived on the pressure.

Halfpenny slotted over a late match-winner against Ireland and went on to finish as top scorer in the tournament with 66 points courtesy of two tries, seven conversions and 14 penalties.

The 23-year-old kept the responsibility for the June Tests against the Wallabies and finished with an incredible 94 per cent success rate.

Maintaining that figure will be vital according to Springboks ace Pienaar, a man who is lethal from the tee when playing for Ulster.

“In Test rugby you need to kick every point you can and Wales are very lucky to have Leigh Halfpenny,” said the 60-times capped half-back, who is part of the Boks squad that will take on Ireland, Scotland and England in the coming weeks.

“He kicks the ball a long way and has proved that he can slot them over from anywhere in pressure situations and that gives a boost to his teammates and also worries the opposition.

“His kicking going to be massively important this autumn because there will be some tight games and having the ability to keep the scoreboard ticking is key.”

Pienaar knows all about the current New Zealand and Australia squads having gone toe to toe with them in the recent Rugby Championship.

He believes that the All Blacks will prove too strong for all their opposition but “New Zealand will be tough because they are amazing side playing quality rugby,” he said. “They are getting better and better it seems.

“It will be hard for anyone to beat them because they have a settled team that has been together a long time with players like Dan Carter and Richie McCaw.

“Australia are different, they have had a few bad injuries and that meant that they weren’t able to have any continuity in the Rugby Championship.

“They’ve got some important players back now and they will be looking to them to be their inspiration and fire them up again.

“But Wales showed in June that they are more than capable of beating Australia – they should have won at least one of those games.

“They have made big steps over the past few years but need to win a big game and they have a great chance against Australia because a packed Millennium Stadium is an amazing place to play.”