Centre Tom Shanklin insists Wales have the belief to beat one of the Tri-Nations big guns this autumn.
The Grand Slam winners were crushed 2-0 in their summer series in South Africa, while they have not won against against any of the big three since Australia visited the Millennium Stadium in 2005.
Despite the lack of success, Shanklin believes Wales are capable of causing an upset when New Zealand, South Africa and Australia come to Cardiff in November.
He told the Western Mail: “It is difficult playing the Tri-Nations teams, but, if you want to see where you are in world rugby, you’ve got to play the best.
“When you play New Zealand, Australia and South Africa you see where you really are. I feel we are ready for the challenge and I really hope we can pull off a big scalp. They are going to come to us and we are going to play them at the Millennium Stadium knowing we can actually beat these teams if we play well on the day.”
The Blues centre is particularly relishing the revenge clash with South Africa on November 8. He added: “We play them first up in the autumn now. We will be far fresher and hopefully with a bit more in the tank. With home advantage and having been to South Africa and come back hurting from the two-Test loss, I think that is the real crunch game for us.
“That’s the team we have played recently and got the real knowledge of. We learned a lot from playing them out there. They are not an expansive side really, but they do the basics very well.”
