The Scarlets scrum-half has had to wait patiently for his opportunity with both Tomos Williams and Gareth Davies selected ahead of him so far this autumn.
But he will partner Dan Biggar in a new look half-back partnership when Wayne Pivac’s side take on a dangerous Fijian outfit at the Principality Stadium this Sunday.
“Obviously, I’ve had to be patient the first couple of weeks with Tomos and Gareth having the first opportunities,” Hardy said.
“I think they’ve both played pretty well, but I get an opportunity this week so it is quite exciting. I think it’s a good thing.
“We definitely push each other to be better in the environment, in training and through the performances.
“It’s one of those things that you know if you don’t play well enough or you are not training well enough, then one of the other boys is more than capable of stepping in.
“We are pretty lucky in Wales with the nines we can pick from.”
Wales have yet to record a win this autumn but were significantly better against South Africa than they were against New Zealand.
And Hardy insists they have to get a win against Fiji this weekend ahead of facing Australia next weekend.
“Early on, we will look to put pressure on Fiji and play territory,” Hardy said.
“Obviously we have got a game plan around the way we want to play the game. We want to be quite expansive and take opportunities when we see them,” he said.
“It will be about building ourselves into the game, but ultimately we have spoken about the performance and trying to get a result. We came up a bit short last weekend and the boys are desperate to get a win.
“If there are opportunities to play then we will do, but we have got to earn the right to play, particularly early on.
“Fiji are quite a physical team so we might have to play through them and particularly when they get tired.
“Then we can expose them and take our chances.”
