WALES defence coach Shaun Edwards hopes that a miserly autumn will help his bid to be reunited with Warren Gatland on the Lions tour to New Zealand next summer.

The rugby league icon is currently helping caretaker boss Rob Howley prepare the national squad for November Tests against Australia, Argentina, Japan and South Africa.

Wales head into the fixtures on the back of a chastening summer that saw them lose to England and the Chiefs as well as all three Tests to the All Blacks, shipping 27 tries in the process.

At the time there were question marks over the performances in defence against the world champions, however New Zealand's subsequent exploits in the Rugby Championship with 38 tries in six games have provided some context.

Edwards was an assistant to Ian McGeechan on the Lions' tour to South Africa in 2009 but missed out four years later when Andy Farrell got the nod from Wales boss Gatland.

His fellow Wiganer is now on the Ireland coaching team while Paul Gustard has impressed since being brought into the England set-up by Eddie Jones.

Edwards insists any thoughts of heading to New Zealand are at the back of his mind, but knows the hopefuls need to enjoy a strong November.

"My ambition is to have a really successful autumn series and then the powers that be will decide after that," he said.

"We have very similar teams as England, the only difference is that we play Japan and they have Fiji, so there is a direct comparison with them.

"Ireland are the unlucky ones in a way because they are playing the All Blacks! But it could be a rainy day in Dublin and Ireland were within a hair's breadth of beating them a few years ago.

"We are all competing for those Lions positions but we'll just leave that to the powers that be and concentrate on our day jobs."

Wales have been boosted for their opener against the Aussies by the availability of their England-based players, who have been granted a one-off release for a Test outside of World Rugby's window.

Northampton's George North, Harlequins' Jamie Roberts, Luke Charteris of Bath, Gloucester's Ross Moriarty and Exeter's Tomas Francis can now feature against the Wallabies.

That will add depth to the Wales squad with Edwards believing their All Blacks encounters hammered home the importance of keeping standards high for the whole game.

"We've learnt that we need to compete and keep that intensity for 80 minutes. I think it showed how important the bench impact is in international rugby – it's a 23-man game nowadays," he said.

"Against the All Blacks any small error will be punished but we can look back and, while we are not satisfied, because you never have satisfaction when you lose, maybe we didn't do as badly as people were thinking at the time."

Australia have lost seven of their last 10 games, including a home whitewash at the hands of England and three convincing losses to the All Blacks. Edwards, however, gives the idea that they are vulnerable short shrift.

"They are the second best team in the Rugby Championship. I know that they only just beat Argentina and have had some competitive games against South Africa, but I'd say they are the best out of the three," he said.

"They are obviously better when a world class player like David Pocock comes back into the team and let's be honest, they've given us a lot of pain over the years with last-minute victories. Kicks, drop goals, you name it and we've had it.

"Let's hope that the hurt can bring the best out of us."