Dyer due a break after mammoth Wales season

Rio Dyer scored a try on his Wales debut against New Zealand in November 2022

Wales wing Rio Dyer will have earned his rest period when the season finally finishes this week.

The national side completed their Test programme with a 36-28 defeat against Australia in Melbourne which saw the Wallabies wrap up the series 2-0.

Wales have one final tour friendly against Queensland Reds in Brisbane on Friday before a welcome rest following a season that started a year ago.

Dyer, 28, has been involved in 15 of Wales 16 internationals during the 2023-24 season with 12 starts and three replacement appearances.

He also featured in the uncapped international against Barbarians in December and played in 14 Dragons games to take his total appearances to 30.

"It has been a very long season for a lot of us and probably feels as if it has been two seasons in one," said Dyer.

"A lot of us haven't really had too much time off and played week in week out. Even though we have been non-stop you can see the boys have given 100% and that just shows what sort of team we are.

"The down time is going to be nice for people to spend time with their family and enjoy that break."

Frustration in defeat

Dyer says the squad are disappointed they could not finish the international campaign on a high, with defeat in Melbourne representing a ninth successive Test defeat.

The latest loss also means Wales' 55-year wait for a win against the Wallabies in Australia will continue.

"It is frustrating for a lot of us going on from the result in Sydney," said Dyer.

"We were in the game at 60 minutes and then letting go of it.

"It is the same thing happening. For the last two weeks we have been working hard, non-stop in training.

"We wanted this win, to make history as a team and go back to Wales with a win but annoyingly we haven't got it."

Dyer demonstrated his class with a superb second-half solo try against Australia but it could not inspire a Wales comeback.

"It is trying to get that fluidity into the game and that worked well for us," said Dyer.

"It's about that ball movement, getting width into our game and the ball into players hands and trying to create something.

"It would be nice to do it a little bit more. Even though we have not got the results in the last two weeks some of the stuff we have put together has been good.

"If we can put an 80-minute performance together, keep our discipline and not give away easy tries, we would have been able to get the two wins comfortably and prove to others we will be a very good team.

"It is just those little errors that didn't help us throughout the games."