Wales travel to Twickenham to face a strong England side who are playing their first home game of the Six Nations. Pivac was impressed with how his side bounced back from an opening round defeat in Dublin to beat Scotland at the Principality Stadium.
And the former Scarlets coach wants his players to take their home form onto the road. “Every team loves playing at home and it’s their first game at home in this tournament,” said Pivac.
“They’ll enjoy being back there and they’ll have the home support. We know how much it means to our side playing at the Principality.
“It’s something we’ve talked about. We need to transfer the performance we had in front of our own supporters away at Twickenham.
“That’s the big challenge in front of us. Playing in front of a full house, whether it’s home or away, is an exciting prospect.
“I’ve only been there once as Wales coach. It’s a magnificent stadium, it’s a massive crowd with over 80,000.
“It just adds to the flavour of the match. History would show it’s a hard place to go and get a result but we’re certainly going there with that aim in mind.”
Pivac has recalled Bath No 8 Taulupe Faletau who has recovered from a long-term injury, while Josh Adams returns from a calf strain to take his place on the wing. Leon Brown, Kieran Hardy, and Gareth Anscombe come onto the replacements bench.
“The big challenge for us is to have that same attitude and the same willingness to throw ourselves around the park like we did last week in front of 70,000-odd mainly Wales fans, to do that on the road in a hostile environment with mainly English supporters,” he said.
“That’s one of the big challenges we’ve talked about during the week, is being able to compete with the English pack, which is a big pack, and making sure we’re disciplined and don’t give them too many inroads with their lineout and obviously they’ve got a pretty good scrum. It’s a big challenge for us up front and we need to back that up across the whole 15.
“He (Faletau) has a lot of experience, which is going to be required, and he’s also had a couple of games under his belt now, with 80 minutes last week. He’s trained very well during the week. He brings the good footwork in the contact area and he’s a very knowledgeable player in the game.
“He’s slotted in very quickly. We’re starting him and we’ll see how long he goes for. He’s not far off 90 caps, he’s a British and Irish Lion. He brings a wealth of experience.
“He’s a very well-liked member of the squad and he lifts those around him. So we’re very pleased.” Pivac also paid tribute to wing Alex Cuthbert who will be winning his 50th Wales cap at Twickenham on Saturday.
“I’m really chuffed for Alex,” said Pivac. “He’s worked very hard, he’s come back from some pretty big injuries over the years.
“He had excellent form in his last year in England and he’s come back and worked very hard in our environment. He has a massive work-rate and that’s certainly helping him at the moment.
“To get 50 caps is a massive achievement and we’re pleased he’s been able to reach that milestone in such a big game.”
