WARREN Gatland says Wales can be proud of his side after they fell agonisingly short in their World Cup quarter-final against South Africa.

A try in the closing stages by Springboks scrum-half Fourie du Preez sneaked a bruising Test 23-19 and condemned Wales to an exit in the last eight of a tournament.

Gatland’s squad rallied from a crippling injury list to make it out of a group of death including hosts England, Australia and Fiji but will now be spectators for the semi-finals.

“I couldn’t have asked for any more from the players in terms of effort,” said Gatland. “Wales can be very proud of these players and their performance and commitment to come out of that tough group.

“They have given 100 per cent and emptied the tank. That’s all we could ask for and I am proud of what they have delivered.

“The guys put their bodies on the line, gave everything, emptied the tank but unfortunately we weren’t able to hold on for 80 minutes. Credit to South Africa they stayed in the game.”

Captain Sam Warburton lamented Wales’ indiscipline in the first quarter that gifted Handre Pollard a quartet of penalties.

“I couldn’t have asked any more of the guys and from an effort point of view I have no regrets,” said the flanker.

“For me the 12 points, the four penalties when we weren’t under that much pressure, were the most crucial because they didn’t stress our try line in the first half.”

Warburton was full of praise for Newport Gwent Dragons centre Tyler Morgan after the 20-year-old from Caerleon produced a strong performance on just his third cap.

“When I was 20 I was nowhere near that level,” said the skipper. “It was a baptism of fire and considering we’ve lost Jonathan Davies, Scott Williams and Cory Allen, to be able to call on Tyler to do a great job is good for us moving forward.

“The question going into the World Cup was ‘who are we going to find out about?’ and Gareth Davies has got five tries, Tyler and Gareth Anscombe have come in and done great jobs.”