Gareth Davies has admitted Wales need to go up two levels if they are to live with England and Ireland in the Six Nations.

The Scarlets scrum-half insists Wales can be pleased with their victory over South Africa, but unsatisfied that performances have been below the levels set by their home union rivals.

Wales begin the Six Nations with a trip to Italy before playing England and Ireland at home.

Rob Howley’s team completed their autumn international series with a record 27-13 victory over the Springboks, but Ireland can reflect on wins against New Zealand and Australia and England remain unbeaten under Eddie Jones heading into next Saturday’s Twickenham meeting with the Wallabies.

Conor O’Shea-coached Italy are Wales’ opening Six Nations opponents on February 5, before England arrive in town six days later.

“We’ve already spoken about the Six Nations,” Wales scrum-half Davies said. “We are looking forward to it.

“The next game at the Principality Stadium is England. We were fairly comfortable (against South Africa), but I think we have got another couple of gears in us, and for us to beat England we are going to have to go through those gears.

“They are on great form, but like I said, I thought we were quite comfortable against South Africa. And if we can get up to that top gear, I think it will be a hell of a game.

“I think we have been under a bit of pressure the last couple of weeks, but we ended with a comfortable win.

“We will review the autumn series, and I am sure there will be a few points to work on going into the Six Nations.”

Wales reserved their best performance of the autumn until last, eclipsing a previous-best winning margin against South Africa of 17 years ago as the Springboks were comfortably kept at a safe distance.

Far sterner Six Nations challenges now await, but at least Wales will go into the tournament after establishing momentum.

Davies added: “We were a bit loose against Japan, but I thought Dan (Biggar) and myself controlled the game (against South Africa) fairly well and the forwards put a hell of a shift in and made our job slightly easier.

“We spoke at half-time about the first team to score in the second half being a massive factor in the game, so it was important for us to get that first score.”

And centre Scott Williams said: “We have improved as we have gone along. We have tried to change a couple of things in the way we play – it’s not going to change overnight, but we have got to make sure we keep improving.

“All the other teams are kicking on and improving, so I think it is going to be an exciting Six Nations.

“We were disappointed with the way we started the autumn, but we have finished with three wins.”