A Wales side shorn of 12 front line players scored 10 tries in an impressive 68-12 victory over Canada at the Principality Stadium on Saturday.
There were impressive performances from player of the match Ben Carter on his first Wales appearance while his fellow debutants Tom Rogers, Gareth Thomas, Taine Basham and Ben Thomas also impressed.
“It’s a new group of guys,” said Pivac. “Foxy [Jonathan Davies] was the only one in the starting line-up from the last time we played.
“There has been a lot of work going on in the last few weeks. We were really eager to see how the guys would go and see how they combined.
“It wasn’t the start that anyone wanted, but the reaction to that was good. To have 40 points in the bank by half time means you have to be relatively pleased.
“We knew there would be mistakes and there were. We’ll look at that and pull out the learnings for individuals and for the group as a whole.
“I’m thrilled for Ben. It’s the first time he’s played a professional game in front of his family.
“We gave him the extra workload in terms of calling the line-outs, we wanted to put him under pressure, and he did very well. It bodes well for the future.
“Clearly the fans enjoyed being back. There was a little bit of rain in the warm-up but the sun came out and it was an enjoyable afternoon.”
Despite a hugely encouraging start to their summer Test series, Pivac has warned his side they will have to step it up against Argentina in Cardiff next weekend.
The Pumas are one of the form sides in world rugby at the moment and last year recorded an historic first victory over the All Blacks in the Rugby Championship.
“We didn’t want to go in cold against a side that has drawn twice against Australia and beaten the All Blacks,” said Pivac. “You have to respect any side that can do that.
“Argentina are a serious tier one nation now and for this young team to go up against a side like that is exactly what we need. It will show them how much hard work they need to put in if they want to play at this level on a regular basis.
“There are lots of learnings today and there will be a lot more next week. We’ll need to step it up across our whole game really.
“It’s highlighted a few things for us that we’ll go away and work on. We’ll be tested across the board because it’s a step up from a tier two to a tier one nation, obviously.”
The Canada victory was soured by an early injury to full-back Leigh Halfpenny who was taken from the field on a stretcher on what was his 100th Test match.
But Pivac is confident Halfpenny will bounce back no matter the severity of his injury.
“It was a shock to everyone, wasn’t it?,” said Pivac. “It was just under a minute into the game.
“He’s just stepped off one leg and tweaked the knee. We won’t know how bad it is until he gets that scanned and he’ll do that early next week.
“I had a chat with him after the game and no matter what it is, Leigh is a determined young man. He wants to play 100 games for his country as well as 100 Test matches combined with those Lions ones.
“He’s still driven and he still feels he can offer something for his country. While he has that at the forefront of his mind, I have no doubt he’ll bounce back.”
