“There is not doubt that my job is to make our defence more rock solid,” said Edwards, who will remain in his coaching job at Wasps.

“Having spoken to Gareth Edwards, John Taylor and also Clive Rowlands, they have told me that although Wales scored tries, their main emphasis was on defence. We need to bring that emphasis back into our game.

“Like everyone else I remember the great tries we scored (in the 1970s) and some of the great attacking play, but when you look at the stats we forget that it was all built on a rock-solid defence.

“Having spoken to JT (John Taylor) in particular he remembers there was a game in France in 1971 when they won despite not having the ball because their defence was unbelievable.

“If I can get that emphasis back in the game – it’s not going to happen overnight – we have a chance to start moving up the world rankings.

“But we can’t expect success if every time we have got to score 30 or 40 points to win a game.

"As long as we stick together, learn from our mistakes and show a desire to improve then we have a chance.

“You can look at the team which won the championship in 2005. It only conceded 84 points and in the last couple of years that has been up to 160-170 points.

“That is my job to get that down.”

Edwards said he had no problem fitting into the Welsh rugby culture.

“Welsh rugby is a working class sport and I’m from a working class background,” he added.

“The only difference is the rules (in league and union) are different, but the emotion is the same.

“We aren’t going to be the biggest team in the world if you look at the Boks (South Africa), but I’m sure that is something Warren will be putting in place. He is very big on the strength and conditioning side of the game.”