Scrum-half Ellis Bevan savoured the challenge of playing against double World Cup champions South Africa at Twickenham on Saturday.
The 24-year-old won his first cap during the 41-13 defeat, but impressed on his Wales debut and was denied a first-half try after a final pass went astray.
“What an occasion to have my first cap against the current world champions,” said Bevan.
“I have watched the Springboks for years so you know what’s coming.
“We had a game plan and stuck to it and in the first 50 minutes we executed that reasonably well.
“There will be missed opportunities we can look back on but we can be proud of enforcing our own plan and being just one point down at half-time.
“We are never going to be pleased with losing but we can be positive with some of the things we showed out there.”
Bevan was pitted against Faf de Klerk and relished the opportunity to play opposite the legendary Springbok scum-half.
“It was something I was looking forward to and wanted to embrace playing against a double World Cup winner on my debut,” said Bevan.
“If I want to get to where he is, I have to come up against the best.
“He told me I had a good game and said keep going. He was kind enough to give me his shirt and we had a photo in the changing room.
“So he is a good guy on and off the field.”
With Wales’ touring squad for Australia named on Monday and the party flying to Sydney on Wednesday, Bevan is hopeful his performance against South Africa will earn him a spot on the tour alongside fellow nines, Kieran Hardy and Gareth Davies.
“I will hopefully get on to the plane,” said Bevan.
“There are three of us in the squad and the other two guys are quality scrum-halves.
“If I can have a career half as good as Gareth and Kieran, I will be doing all right.”
Bevan also praised the influence of former Cardiff teammates Lloyd Williams and Tomos Williams on his game.
“I went in there to Cardiff as a 20-year-old boy still at university,” said Bevan.
“I had Tomos and Lloyd to learn off and I could not have asked for better people.”