The trophy was packed up at Stade de France and shipped off to Wales’ Vale of Glamorgan bas after Scotland’s last gasp victory ensured a maiden Championship crown for the Wales head coach.
The last seven days has been a rollercoaster of emotions for Pivac, his staff, players and the Welsh rugby public. But after finally getting their hands on the trophy, Pivac believes his exciting side are on the path to even more success.
“We like to keep a lot of that emotional stuff to ourselves. It took me to about Wednesday to really want to come out of the house,” he said. “Purely from the point of view that it was a sickening feeling for the players.
“We desperately wanted that Grand Slam for so many reasons for the hard the work that went in, the style of rugby we played, and to win that way would have been fantastic, but we really wanted to do it for the people of Wales. But the sun does come up in the morning.
“It was an emotional rollercoaster the last seven days because we put in by far our best performance against the French and I thought we had done enough midway through the second half to have won that game – but it wasn’t to be.
“Then we didn’t know if it was good enough to win the Championship, waiting seven days for that match and then go through that match – which looking back was a really exciting match – with so many moments that kept us on our toes.
“We aren’t the finished product; we will keep on improving and fine tuning. We’ll draw a line in the
sand now and see how we are, we’re measuring up quite nicely.
“As you’ve seen in this Six Nations, Scotland have improved, Ireland have improved, and England beat the French so there are no easy games, and the Rugby World Cup is going to be the ultimate for us.”
It may have been Pivac’s first taste of Six Nations glory, but he had inherited a squad packed full of Championship winning experience. Chief amongst the serial winners in the Wales squad is captain Alun Wyn Jones, who led Wales through fierce battles and controversy to emerge victorious. And Pivac believes his captain’s unrelenting approach to day to day life is the secret to his success and longevity.
“Alun Wyn is going to go down as one of the greatest players of all time, and rightly so,” he added. “I suspected he would go well, but he even surpassed what I thought he would deliver.Â
“And it’s not just what you see on a given day in a Test match. It’s what he does in every minute of every training session, he leads from the front physically, it’s just incredible. Where he gets the motivation from, it’s again the pride in the jersey and playing for his country. For a small nation, people will say we punch above our weight, but there’s a lot of history there and a lot of motivated people, and he’s our leader on and off the field, does a fantastic job along with other leaders in this team.”
