The former Scarlets coach has named a strong 33-man squad to tour the Rainbow Nation just 15 month out from the World Cup in France. And he insists this tour will be a crucial building block for this squad.
“It’s the first step and the last step if you like,” said Pivac when asked how important this tour was to his World Cup preparations. “We’ll be looking to play our strongest side now through to the World Cup and we make no apologies for that.
“We’ve taken 33 and for me personally I think that is a great number because it does replicate the rugby world cup. It’s going to challenge the coaches because in all the tournaments we’ve had so far we’ve been at home and we have been able to have 36 or 38 players, so even if you get a few bumps and bruises you still have your 15 v 15 which is important to simulate the game scenarios.
“We will be tested there in terms of numbers for training and it won’t always be perfect but it may simulate red cards, yellow cards which are prevalent in the game today so it will get us tuned up ready to go for the rugby world cup and the travel during the week and that sort of thing won’t be too dissimilar.”
Pivac has named two uncapped players in his squad in Cardiff Rugby back-five forward James Ratti, and Leicester Tigers openside Tommy Reffell. There are also recalls for George North, who has only recently recovered from a serious knee injury, and Scarlets playmaker Rhys Patchell.
Experienced blindside Dan Lydiate is also back in the squad for the first time since suffering a serious injury against Ireland in the opening game of the 2021 Guinness Six Nations. And Pivac is extremely happy with the strength of this squad.
“There is a bit of a refresh with the likes of George North coming back in,” said Pivac. “There are some players that have been out of the game for a little bit of time that are pretty near.
“We looked long and hard at the performances in the Six Nations and we’ve got the World Cup in mind, which is now only 15 or 16 months away. There is a bit of looking ahead to the big stage of the Rugby World Cup, we’ve invested a lot of time in players over the last few years.
“It’s a juggling act of who we think deserves to be there on form and also thinking ahead to what we’ll need at the World Cup. It’s a combination of things. There are some players clearly unavailable through injuries as well.
“James [Ratti] we had a good look at during the Six Nations. He’s a young guy that worked very hard, who applied himself and did everything we asked him to do.
“He just didn’t get the opportunity because we didn’t think he was quite ready then. With injury and some form that he’s shown in recent weeks, we believe he deserves an opportunity.
“You’ll see we’ve picked two sevens, two eights and two sixes. Tommy Reffell is someone that we spoke about before the Six Nations and it was touch and go.
“We went with the local boys for the obvious reasons that have been mentioned previously. But he’s now been in form week in and week out, in a pretty tough competition and a team that’s playing well.”
