Richard Hibbard: Ready for a physical battle

Ospreys hooker Hibbard could be among the changes made to a Wales team horribly outplayed by Argentina that resulted in last season's RBS 6 Nations champions being beaten 26-12.

Samoa are next on the autumn agenda before Wales face world champions New Zealand and then Australia.

Hibbard and his colleagues will be back on the training pitch today as fall-out continues from their heaviest home defeat for three years and worst result anywhere in 22 Tests.

"It's going to be another tough game, a physical battle," he said.

"This autumn series just gets more physical and there are going to be some big hard hits. I think they will target us big time.

"We definitely must not panic, but it is nothing we can't put right. We will be looking to hit lumps out of each other in training this week.

"Argentina were aggressive physically, in attack and defence. They tackled and carried hard. We knew what was coming, and in fairness they didn't tire and came at us for the full 80 minutes.

"It was disappointing because we had targeted the match as a win but, basically, we weren't good enough on the day.

"Argentina are definitely up there with other top teams. They have got some real big big boys and they used their strengths. We saw how good they were in the recent Rugby Championship, where they were unlucky with a few results."

Apart from the paucity of performance against Argentina, Wales' interim head coach Rob Howley must also address a growing injury list.

Prop Adam Jones and flanker Dan Lydiate had already been ruled out of the entire autumn series, but centre Jamie Roberts (concussion) and lock Alun-Wyn Jones (shoulder) could now join them after going off in the Pumas encounter.

Howley, though, will hope that centre Jonathan Davies and back-row forward Ryan Jones, who were both sidelined from facing Argentina, can now be declared fully fit.

Ospreys trio Hibbard, Dan Biggar and Justin Tipuric are among those who can realistically expect to start in four days' time, while Bradley Davies and Luke Charteris could forge the second-row partnership.

Wales wing Alex Cuthbert, meanwhile, underlined a mood of determination to bounce back against a Samoan side that have traditionally proved tough opponents.

"We hadn't been together since the summer tour of Australia, but there are no excuses. We trained hard with high intensity," he said.

"In modern day rugby you have got to forget that (losing) and look to the game ahead. We have got to put the Argentina game to bed and concentrate on Samoa.

"We know we have got to be better to beat Samoa."