Wales were put under severe pressure for large periods of this game but a brace of tries from Ryan Elias, plus touchdowns from Alex Cuthbert, Rees-Zammit, and Liam Williams helped secure a 38-23 win at Principality Stadium.
Fiji did play the majority of this test match with 14 men after wing Eroni Sau was sent off for a reckless swinging arm to the head of Johnny Williams.
Pivac was content with his side’s victory, but insists they will have to be better at the breakdown when they face Australia next Saturday.
“It was probably everything you’d expect in a Fiji against Wales game or certainly the couple I’ve been involved in,” said Pivac.
“There was a lot of offloading going on in the early part of the game. We talked about being accurate in defence and not allowing those offloads to get away, but they got a few as they tend to do.
“They started very well. The biggest problem for us during that first 60 minutes was the fact we had separation at the breakdown.
“They were very strong over the ball and we talked about that all week long as well.
“That’s a concern and that’s something we’ll be working on very hard this week to make sure that the ball carrier looks after the ball a little bit better and there’s no separation between him and the guys who are designated to clean out.
“Fiji threw everything at us and did very well. They went down a man and that galvanised them. I think at that point they had everything to gain and nothing to lose.
“Quite often when you go out with that cavalier attitude things can come off for you.
“They were a player down yes, but it still meant in all the breakdown areas they still had big men over the ball and it caused us problems.
“We talked about the extra man, building phases, and wearing them down. Ultimately at the end of the game it did wear them down, but it took us a while because of our inaccuracies at the breakdown.”
Pivac also raved about a moment of utter brilliance from Rees-Zammit who showed an outrageous turn of pace to score his try which ultimately won Wales the game.
“That’s what he can do and you can’t coach that,” said Pivac. “That is just express pace. I was just pleased for him.
“He was marked very heavily on the left wing. I was very pleased he showed his individual brilliance and that raw pace that he has.
“It’s great to have him in your side when he can do that sort of thing.”
Pivac also gave an injury update with Josh Adams pulling out of the match after suffering a calf strain during the warm up while tighthead prop WillGriff John left the field early with a head injury.
“Josh just felt something in his leg during the warm-up,” Pivac said. “He wanted to start the game to see how it went but we certainly weren’t going to allow that to happen.
“He was concerned about letting his team-mates down and he’s such a good guy Josh that he was putting the team before himself. But the medical staff and myself made that call just before kick-off.
“These things can happen and you just have to adapt. Hopefully it won’t keep Josh out for too long as it was precautionary.
“We also had a couple of head knocks with WillGriff and Will Rowlands. With a six-day turnaround for Australia we’ll just have to see how they are tomorrow.
“It could be we dig a bit deeper into our squad.”
