The 25-year-old was one of the standout players in the run to the World Cup finals, but has struggled to replicate that form in Wales’ perfect start to the Championship.

Never more so than against England at Twickenham where in addition to being sin-binned, he saw his clearance kick charged down by Mourtiz Botha and seemed to lack his usual composure in attack.

Skills coach Neil Jenkins knows full well the pressure of wearing the red No.10 shirt in which he became the first man to score over 1,000 Test points, but has backed Priestland to recover from his current dip in standards.

And while Jenkins did admit there are issues to be ironed out, he was fully confident they can be addressed by the time Wales play Italy in the penultimate round of games.

"We have had a chat with Rhys, we had a talk briefly after the game," Jenkins said. "We also had a chat on Monday and Tuesday and I think in that last quarter of an hour he has dug in and come through it.

"It hasn't gone his way on the day but we have all been there. We have all had games where things don't go to plan but the pleasing thing I think from Rhys' point of view was that he kept going.

"I thought in the last quarter of an hour he was excellent, he kept us going forward and I think that was decisive in us winning the game towards the end.

"There were a couple of issues where he could have kicked and we decided to run and we could have kicked a lot more ball in the first half than we did.

"But he is quite new to the Test arena, he has been involved for more or less a year and it will be a learning curve for him and I am sure he will be back to his best when we face Italy."