Shaun Edwards has defended under-fire coach Rob Howley by insisting Wales autumn campaign will be judged on how they fare against South Africa on Saturday. Kendall Fuller Jersey . Wales have not claimed three autumn victories since overcoming Japan, Canada and Romania in 2002.Howleys side are in position to do that after bouncing back from their opening defeat to Australia with narrow wins over Argentina and Japan. Sky Sports Black Friday sale Upgrade to Sky Sports now and get 12 months half price! But the nature of Saturdays 33-30 victory over Japan – they won it when Sam Davies landed a drop goal with nine seconds left – has led to questions over where this Wales team is heading with Warren Gatland currently away on British and Irish Lions leave. Jamie Roberts goes over for the second Wales try You know when you are in this position as a national coach, you have to block everything out, defence coach Edwards said. You continue doing your job, what you are trying to do.Rob has only been in one Six Nations [when Gatland was on a similar sabbatical ahead of the 2013 Lions tour to Australia] and he has won it. Akihito Yamada of Japan scores a try for the visitors He has a 100 per cent winning record, he is an excellent coach with his attention to detail.Wales have only won two and drawn one of their previous 31 matches against South Africa who arrive at their lowest ebb in years, losing six of their last seven matches, the latest of which was their first ever defeat to Italy.But Wales triumphed when they last met in Cardiff two years ago, with Leigh Halfpenny kicking four penalties in a hard-fought 12-6 victory. South Africa players trudge off after their demoralising defeat to Italy The success or relative failure [of the autumn] will depend on whether we win on Saturday, Edwards said.Its been said in the past weve played Australia many times and lost by one point. Weve played fantastic, but weve lost. Its all about winning and weve won two tight games.Have we played as well as wanted to on Saturday? No, we didnt. But were going into a cup final this week against a team ranked higher than us and theyve got what we want, which is that fourth ranked position.Upgrade to Sky Sports now and get 12 months half price. Hurry, offer ends December 4! Also See: Italy stun Springboks Wales deny brave Japan Jones: Wales complacent Howley wary of Boks backlash Chris Jones Jersey . – Aroldis Chapman, with two black eyes, has returned to the Cincinnati Reds clubhouse four days after being hit in the face by a line drive. Frank Clark Jersey .C. – Goodyear has warned teams that increased speeds at Charlotte Motor Speedway will put a heavy emphasis on the right front tires in Saturday nights race a€” a potentially key development for drivers trying to advance in the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship.BOSTON — The Boston Bruins own the NHLs best home record. Now they know theyll have home-ice advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs. Johnny Boychuk scored the tiebreaking goal with 6:06 left in the third period, Milan Lucic had two goals and the Bruins clinched the conferences best record with a 5-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday afternoon. With four games remaining on their schedule, the Bruins have 50 regulation and overtime wins — the leagues first tiebreaker. Second-place Pittsburgh has 44 and cant catch Boston if it wins the rest of its games. „You work so hard for that all season, its nice we could do it here,“ Lucic said. It was Bostons league-leading 30th home victory. The win also moved Boston two points ahead of St. Louis for the NHLs best record. The Blues lost to Colorado on Saturday. „With the win today we clinched (the conference), and its good for our team,“ Boston defenceman Torey Krug said. „Were excited about having home ice now.“ Boston coach Claude Julien knows its been a good season. „You just have to look at our record,“ he said. „Were at 113 (points). I think that shows you overall weve been a pretty good team. Weve had struggles at times, but I dont think theres an area Id consider a weakness on the team.“ David Krejci also scored for the Bruins and Patrice Bergeron extended his consecutive point streak to 11 games, setting up Boychuks go-ahead score. Wayne Simmonds and Jay Rosehill scored for the Flyers, who are in a tight race with a group of teams for a playoff spot. „Every game is a must-win,“ Flyers captain Claude Giroux said. „There are a lot of teams behind us trying to make the playoffs. We have played good enough to be in the position we are right now and we cant forget that. We have to remember that we are a good team and we are in this position because we did a lot of good things this year.“ Tuukka Rask stopped 24 shots for the Bruins, who had lost their past two games. Ray Emery made 37 saves for the Flyers. Philadelphia has lost three straight. Emery hopes the Flyers can turn thiings around quickly. Alex Brown Jersey. „The playoffs come fast and if youre not playing well, normally you see yourselves out pretty quick,“ he said. „So we definitely want to be sharp going in.“ Bergeron won a faceoff cleanly back to Boychuk, who fired a slap shot past Emerys glove for the go-ahead goal. Lucic scored less than a minute later and Chris Kelly added an empty-netter with 21 seconds to play. The teams were tied 2-2 entering the third period after the Flyers came back twice. Trailing 1-0, the Flyers snapped a lengthy scoreless stretch on Simmonds power-play goal 14:36 into the second when he gained possession of a shot off the back boards and slipped a backhand behind Rask. Philadelphia was shut out in its past two games, and it halted the scoreless stretch at 165:01. But Boston regained the lead 19 seconds later when Krejci circled the net and fed Lucic, who one-timed a shot past Emery from the slot. Philadelphia then tied it at 2 when Rosehill collected Michael Raffls pass alone at the bottom of the right circle, spun quickly and beat Rask inside the far post at 16:21. Krejcis goal 15:56 into the first period gave Boston a 1-0 lead. He scored off the rebound of Loui Erikssons shot, collecting the puck and shifting to his right before firing a wrist shot into the open side of the net. NOTES: Boston F Jarome Iginla was sidelined for the second time in three games, moving Eriksson to the top line. The team said the first one was because of a lower body injury, but didnt have injury details of this one before the game. „Its very minor,“ Julien said. „More of a maintenance day.“ … Bruins D Kevan Miller was also scratched with an unspecified injury. … The Flyers host Buffalo on Sunday before three straight road games. … Boston is off until it opens a two-game road trip at Minnesota on Tuesday. The Bruins are at Winnipeg on Thursday. … Boston F Reilly Smith was presented the teams Seventh Player Award before the game. The award is voted by the fans for the player that performs „above and beyond“ expectations. … It was the Flyers only regular season visit to Boston. ‚ ‚ ‚
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