McBryde and head coach Warren Gatland used 14 players in the pack across the five Championship games, with Jake Ball winning his first cap in Ireland and tighthead prop Rhodri Jones starting his first tournament fixture against Scotland.
Hooker Ken Owens made just his fourth start in 24 Tests when he began Saturday’s 51-3 thumping of the Scots and lock Luke Charteris started a 6 Nations game for the first time since 2010 when Wales beat Italy 23-15 last month.
McBryde, who led Wales’ wider talent on the end-of-season tour of Japan, believes those opportunities will bode well as they get set for a hugely exciting 18 months.
“It was great to be able to give Rhodri and Ken opportunity at this level and to see how they would cope of dealing with the pressure of international rugby,” said McBryde.
“Rhodri hasn’t got that much game time under his belt playing at tighthead but his workrate around the field, both in defence and attack was excellent.
“Ken played well right from the word go. We know how much of an impact he can have off the bench but he started the game in the same vein and he was able to keep that up.
“During the campaign, we’ve unearthed a few players, with someone like Jake Ball coming through as well. We’re slowly and gradually getting a bit of strength in depth.
“Luke Charteris hadn’t had a lot of training game under his belt and Alun Wyn Jones played well as well so it was good to get that performance from a forwards point of view.”
