It was a frustrating afternoon for Wales as they toiled to a victory over Japan

It ended with a whimper, rather than a bang, as Tomos Williams looked unmoved as he kicked the ball out after the clock had gone red on Saturday. The expressions weren't of joy, or even necessarily relief - given the scoreline.

Instead, the body language just read as a little frustrated. Maybe, in the grand scheme of things, that's not a terrible thing.

Last year, when Wales had been starved of victories for the best part of two years, anything was greeted with a mix of joy and relief, then self-loathing would set in a little later over just how far Welsh rugby had fallen.

This was a sense of annoyance that, even in a winning cause, a statement performance wasn't forthcoming.

Japan had been beaten, with the visitors never really looking like winning in truth, but Wales never finished them off either.

Every try was met with a mistake to follow. Good ball was kicked away.

"Stop kicking the f*****g ball," screamed one fan near the press box, rising to his feet. "Ball in hand, run it."

In fairness, the message was similar when Wales were clearing their lines under pressure. "What is the f*****g point of that?"

Funnily enough, when Wales did elect not to kick the effing thing away, with Blair Murray scampering down the wing to lay the foundations for Josh Adams' second score, the foul-mouthed fan was just returning from the bar - having missed Wales' fourth try of the evening.

If the frustration was palpable all around, then it was the visitors who played their part in forging that atmosphere.

It's no great secret that Wales' biggest weapon - beyond Rhys Carre carrying anywhere around the 22 - is the driving maul.

Yet Japan disrupted Wales' lineout throughout. Early on, Ben Carter and Dafydd Jenkins were already in the ear of referee Paul Williams.

"At that last lineout, they were too close to us," said Carter after Japan had stolen the first lineout of the day, before disrupting a maul in midfield.

Soon, captain Dewi Lake sought clarity. "Is there anything we need to be better at the lineout?"

Williams had few work-ons, beyond both teams speeding matters up. "They're getting at our line a lot," added Lake, working out whether that was down to how Williams was allowing Japan's lineout defence to set up.

But when Jenkins offered his thoughts on the lineout, he was quickly shut down. "There's a lot of voices," said the Kiwi official. "Can I just go through Dewi please."

Clearly, it was a lesson Wales didn't learn on the day.

After Japan crossed for their second try, Carter was the next to get a slight dressing down from the official.

"I need you to start going through Dewi as I'm hearing a lot of voices," said Williams.

"I can't chat at every lineout," he'd add later.

By the second half, the referee had clearly had enough.

'We can't be doing this all the time," he told Jac Morgan, who had taken over the captaincy from Lake. "The captain can come to me.

"If it's clear, I'll do something. But trust the process.

"I appreciate you're getting a lot of noise in your ear as well."

Materially, it mattered little in the end. Williams only gave 11 penalties on the day and only five went against Wales. For all the talk, he was fairly lenient - instead opting to coach the sides in-play at certain points.

After Lake was penalised at the breakdown, Williams was fairly clear in his messaging. "Dewi, if I give you quick comms, I expect immediate action," he said. "Don't keep holding on."

That message did seep in. Just moments later, Lake came up with a crucial breakdown penalty near his own line.

On the whole, you'd imagine Ben Whitehouse, new in his role as a part of Wales' coaching team, will have some feedback on Monday. Namely, don't irritate the referee quite so much.