Wales’ narrow 17-13 victory over 2015 World Cup pool opponents Fiji on Saturday was “disappointing and frustrating”, according to coach Warren Gatland.

Despite the South Sea Islanders being reduced to 14 men after prop Campese Ma’afu received a second yellow card in the 52nd minute, the toothless Welsh team remarkably failed to register a score in the second half after leading 17-6 at the break.

Ahead of clashes against world champions New Zealand and South Africa, Gatland said his team’s performance was “disappointing and frustrating”.

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“The endeavour was there and we went out after half-time wanting to raise the intensity, but though we did that at first we were unlucky not to score,” the coach said.

“I thought it was a good display by the forwards but we weren’t clinical enough behind and we made too many turnovers.

“That allowed them to stay in the game. What was close to being potentially a blow-out for us ended up being a dogfight.”

Gatland said he had been left most frustrated by the number of turnovers and also a disallowed try for Taulupe Faletau after the television match official was overruled by French referee Pascal Gauzere.

“We had enough ball but we need to be more clinical behind,” the Kiwi coach said, a week after seeing his team go down 33-28 to Australia.

“We made a number of changes and we felt the team was strong. There were opportunities for those players out there.

“We were frustrated by a number of decisions which didn’t help with the flow of the game or the continuity.

“In fairness to Fiji they went out to try and slow the game down and were effective at doing that.

“For us it was the number of turnovers which was frustrating but we have to be excited about next week against [New Zealand] and look forward to it.

“They have made 14 changes [for their 24-16 victory over Scotland] and will probably make another 13 changes next week and put their number one side out.

“We expect them to come fully loaded and it will be tough but we have to be excited about playing the best team in the world.”