Wales slipped to an opening round Six Nations defeat to Ireland in Dublin last weekend, and things aren’t going to get any easier with a Scotland side who beat England up next. But Pivac has every faith in his players, and believes they will be better this weekend.
“An improvement across the board, really,” said Pivac when asked what he’s looking for from his players on Saturday. “The players are very critical of themselves. They’re very disappointed after the game last week.
“They have worked very hard so far through this week. They are desperate to go out there and show we are a much better team than the display we put on last week.
“Across the board, everybody in the camp was very disappointed with last week. We are at home, we are in front of 75,000 people, and we owe it to ourselves and our public to put on a better display, as simple as that.”
Pivac has made four changes to his starting XV with uncapped Ospreys openside Jac Morgan, and Ross Moriarty coming into the back row. Owen Watkin comes into the centre after Josh Adams picked up a calf strain, while Alex Cuthbert replaces Johnny McNicholl in the back three.
Pivac was full of praise for former Wales under 20s captain Morgan, and is confident there is a good balance in the back row. “We are all looking forward to seeing Jac out there,” he said.
“It will be a great opportunity for him and his family. It just goes to show.
“There are performances on the park in a Test match that obviously carry a lot of weight, but it is also what you do in training, and he has certainly done everything asked for him. Jac has trained very well. He is a very abrasive sort of player, and Ross we know is very strong in that area.
“We’ve learnt that way, and it gives us something different. Obviously, both Jac and Taine are sevens.
“Taine has played as an eight a lot in age-grade rugby and early part of his senior career, so it is not foreign to him to shift around the back-row.”
This Saturday’s game will see both Dan Biggar and Jonathan Davies win their 100th international caps. And Pivac was quick to praise the impact both players have had on Welsh rugby.
“The coaching group was talking about that this morning, actually, when we finalised the fact that Jonathan would be involved and we’d have two players playing 100 Test matches,” said Pivac.
“I know it’s fantastic to play 100 Test matches for Wales and that’s the big one but the British and Irish Lions are Test matches and they’re against three of the top sides in the world in New Zealand, South Africa and Australia.
“When you play 100 Test matches, it says a couple of things. The resilience, the ability to get selected week in, week out for a long period of time, so their form is always good.Those players work hard, they make sacrifices.
“Jonathan has had some major injuries along the way and I think he would have had well over 100 games for Wales by now if it hadn’t been for injuries. To persevere through those darker times and get back to the level that he’s been operating at; I think we’re slowly seeing the Jonathan of old in training and it takes a bit of time after an ACL injury like he had, to get back that little bit of pace.
“I just take my hat off to Jonathan and the work he’s done. Dan has been one of the best goal kickers in the world. He’s our general and one of our big leaders. I’m looking forward to them both getting out there and celebrating.”
