Navidi returned to action for Cardiff Rugby last weekend after five months on the sidelines with injury. But he has returned to start at openside flanker as Wales look to take on a powerful France pack.
“Josh as done it before, hasn’t he? He did it against Ireland last year, first game back – he had no club rugby under his belt,” said Pivac. “Certain players can this.
“They have a history of being able to step up. He is one of them.
“The year before that in the Six Nations at Twickenham, his first game back was a Test match against England. We had worked on 50 or 55 minutes that day but he played 80.
“We know he can do it. he ticked some boxes in the game for Cardiff. He is ready to go and we are very pleased to have him back.
“Seb is a guy we have been giving little cameos off the bench. We have looked at the opposition, we have looked at how we played against England.
“We are wanting to reduce our error count and get our discipline right. He offers us something different in terms of balance at lineout time.
“He has also got a good skillset when he is on the edges so in attack he gives us another weapon.” Pivac has also brought Seb Davies into his back row while Jonathan Davies will wear the number 12 shirt having replaced Nick Tompkins who is out with concussion. Ospreys loosehead Gareth Thomas starts with Wyn Jones on the replacements bench.
The former Scarlets coach is happy with the balance of his squad, but is expecting a tough challenge against a France side who are chasing a Six Nations grand slam. “We would like to get some continuity in selection and that will happen as we get closer to the World Cup, obviously,” said Pivac.
“There’s only really two or three tweaks to this squad, the rest are forced through injury. Nick Tompkins has sustained a concussion in the game last weekend.
“He is going through the processes this week so we took him out of the selection process. We think he (Gareth Thomas) deserves a go.
“He has played very well when he has come off the bench – he has made an impact. The French are a big, physical side.
“I think if you looked at the first half, you looked at the second half, I think Gareth contributed in the collisions and we are certainly going to need some big collisions on the weekend. He gets the opportunity.
“We have spun them around – Wyn will come on. No doubt he will be eager to put in a good performance when he comes on.” Pivac has also pointed out just how important the home crowd will be at the Principality Stadium on Friday night.
“It certainly does help,” said Pivac when asked how influential the home support will be. “If because of Covid times a few French supporters haven’t come over, that probably won’t worry us too much.
“So long as we have got our regular number of Welsh supporters, we’ll be happy. There are a few seats left.
“It would be great to see those seats filled up. Both sides want to play an entertaining brand of rugby and I think you have got the side at the moment who are probably the in-form team in the world in France and we certainly have had a couple of great games against them in recent times, so I think it will be a cracker to come and watch.”
