GARETH Davies says Wales' fringe players have to redeem themselves by helping the first-teamers fight back against the All Blacks, writes Chris Kirwan.

Warren Gatland's tourists head into the second Test in Wellington not only on the back of a pre-tour loss to England and an Auckland defeat but after a humiliating 40-7 midweek defeat to the Chiefs.

The management told the second string to give them a selection headache ahead of the encounter with the world champions at 'The Cake Tin' but nobody took their chance in the six-tries-to-one defeat in Hamilton.

Gatland named his team last night (WED) – see southwalesargus.co.uk/sport for details – but after fluffing their lines, Davies says the midweek players need to get some credit back by helping Sam Warburton & Co.

New Zealand have pledged to hit top gear on Saturday morning after a rusty performance in the first Test in which they trailed going into the final quarter before a trio of tries earned a 39-21 victory.

And Davies says the tourists need to put the disappointment of Waikato behind them by preparing hard as a united squad for the daunting challenge against the All Blacks.

"There are no excuses, the Chiefs wanted it a lot more than we did and it was a bad day at the office," said Scarlets scrum-half Davies, a replacement for Rhys Webb in the first Test.

"I don't think anyone played well enough to put up their hands to start on Saturday. We blew our chances and we shouldn't have any excuses. We had a very good team out on paper, but we just didn't click.

"We've been in camp now for six to eight weeks, we have been with each other training day in, day out and we need to take a good look at ourselves.

"The coaches are going to be hard on us and we are going to be hard on each other. We have to put it behind us and get ready for the second Test on Saturday.

"We need to look forward to a big training day on Thursday. We are one squad and we need to put this to bed and get ready for the big one at the weekend."