Dragons' outside half Ceri Sweeney has warned his Welsh team mates that they must start cutting out the mistakes if they are to beat the likes of South Africa.

Wales gifted South Africa two early tries during Saturday's narrow 36-38 defeat and Sweeney feels that you can't afford to do that on the international stage.

He said: "We made too many mistakes early on and effectively that cost us the game.

'We must stop doing that because we are giving ourselves a mountain to climb and against South Africa, we can't really afford to do that.

"The team all knew what to expect from the Springboks, but we still started slowly and there are really no excuses for that."

Sweeney himself came on as a second half replacement and the Dragons outside half is desperate to be involved in Friday's game against Romania.

"I think we've all got something to prove but I am personally hoping to play," he said.

"But that's up to Mike Ruddock and the rest of the Welsh management."

His Dragons team mate Michael Owen was one of Wales' best performers but despite pushing South Africa close, he says that they can't be content with being 'nearly men'.

He said: "A disappointing thing from my point of view is that we worked really hard for our two tries but gifted them theirs. We need to make teams work harder for their points and make them go through the phases rather than gift them early tries like we did.

"There are a lot of positives we can take from the game but there is still plenty to work on. The good thing from our point of view is that we have a game coming up so soon and we can put this disappointment behind us."