Rugby-Howley seeks both performance and result against South Africa

CARDIFF, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Wales will be eager to take advantage of a crisis-ridden South Africa team when they close off their autumn internationals in Cardiff on Saturday, coach Rob Howley said on Thursday. Over the past few weeks at the Principality Stadium, Wales have been thrashed 32-8 by Australia before going on to record narrow wins over Argentina and Japan. "We are looking at bettering the 70 percent win record at home," Howley told reporters. "We are playing against a side who have lost against Italy. But we didn't perform well against Japan, we won ugly, which sometimes in sport you take." Howley said Wales had endured a tough week after being criticised for their performance in last Saturday's 33-30 win over Japan. "We won the game against Japan but we came up short in terms of our expectation of our performance," he said. Wales have reverted to the team that beat Argentina 24-20 a fortnight ago for their meeting with the Springboks. "We feel we have x-factor players who can get in behind shoulders and off-load, but it is a decision-making process. We have talked about the ability not to hurt ourselves (with poor decision making) and I think against Japan we hurt ourselves," he added. "But I'm not going to stop the players playing, we have to play, express ourselves, it is the modern game." Only captain Sam Warburton is missing from the line-up. "He had a stinger (nerve injury) in training on Tuesday afternoon. He felt he would get through the next 24-48 hours, but the medical team have decided it is much too early," Howley said. "Dan Lydiate, who played particularly well against Japan, comes in." (Reporting by Mark Gleeson, editing by Pritha Sarkar)