FLY-HALF Priestland was “gutted” his first Wales appearance in a year ended in defeat after his side fell short against South Africa on the weekend, writes Iwan Gabe Davies.

Injury saw the 2012 Grand Slam winner miss last season’s Six Nations triumph which was achieved with Dan Biggar holding the coveted No 10 jersey.

But Priestland was preferred to the Ospreys man for the Springboks clash and was far from convincing in the 24-15 setback.

The 26-year-old Scarlets man had mixed emotions after the disappointing defeat, some pundits predicting a rare Welsh victory over a southern hemisphere giant.

“Obviously I am delighted to be part of this Welsh squad, to get the nod at 10, but gutted it is another defeat,” he said.

“You can have some highs, but you get some lows as well. It is not the end of the world, but coming here beforehand I genuinely felt we had more than a chance of winning, but it was just the way that we lost.

“I don't personally feel that they dominated us, so I am a bit gutted to be honest.”

In fact it was a defensive clanger by Priestland that allowed Fourie du Preez to score the decisive try when the Boks led by just two points with 20 minutes to go.

His failure to deal with the scrum-half’s kick saw centre Jacque Fourie, a mile offside, deftly pass to the man of the match who crossed for a converted try under the posts.

Priestland may lose his place to Biggar for the clash with Argentina on Saturday but he is determined Wales beat the Pumas as well as Tonga and Australia later this month.

“We spoke in the week and set ourselves a target of winning three out of the four games, we have lost one now so we are going to have win the other three,” he said.

“I watched the first half of the England game and they went pretty well against Argentina (winning 31-12).

“We know what sort of team Argentina are, they will come down here with a big pack and like South Africa they have a good driving maul, good scrum and after seeing our performance in the air, they will probably kick quite a bit to compete with us, so we know what we have got to work on this week, and not let them stop us from playing the way we want to play next week.”