Wales crashed to four consecutive defeats in a disappointing Dove Men Series.
Already without Adam Jones, Craig Mitchell and Dan Lydiate, Wales lost a host of stars to further injuries during the series.
Alun Wyn Jones, Rob McCusker, Josh Turnbull, Jamie Roberts, Aaron Jarvis, Bradley Davies, George North and Jones himself all suffered various injuries that forced Wales to blood a host of youngsters.
And the veteran back-row forward reckons it will put Wales in good stead for the future.
“This group has grown together this autumn,” said the 70-times-capped former captain.
“We have had incredibly bad luck with injuries and for the guys to get where they were against Australia is credit to them.
“Aaron Shingler has done well the last fortnight, Lou Reed against Australia and Scott Andrews.
“It can only be of benefit exposing some young guys to international rugby – there’s no doubt about that.
“We put in an improved performance against New Zealand; we finished that game strongly and started better against Australia. But we are in the results business, I know.”
Jones admitted the last-gasp defeat to the Wallabies was hard to swallow but he hopes it will never happen again.
“We have been there before, during the summer,” added Jones. “Fingers crossed we will never be there again.
“It was a tough place to be in the dressing room after the game. We found ourselves sat there very quiet and disappointed. You put your body on the line for 80 minutes but sometimes you don’t get the reward you deserve.
“I don’t know what happened at the end. My head was down at the scrum and breakdown.
“These are one-score games. We have to try to nick one, and kick on from there. We have worked incredibly hard over the last month and got no reward.”
