WHAT PIVAC CAN LEARN FROM THE LIONS TOUR AS WALES PREPARE TO TAKE ON SA
THERE has been plenty of discourse around the British and Irish Lions tour.
The dust has barely settled on events in Cape Town and already so much has been said.
South Africa’s style of play, despite clearly being remarkably successful, has been dismissed as “boring” in some quarters, while the Lions’ onfield action hasn’t exactly fared much better in the aesthetic stakes.
Perhaps that’s why it is more than a little surprising that, for all of Warren Gatland’s success, the Lions seem so keen to signal their intentions for him to take charge of another tour in four years.
He’s a great coach who gets the concept of the Lions as well as anyone, but you sense it is time for a fresh face and fresh ideas.
At his best, he’s the perfect coach for implementing a simple gameplan and bringing together a disparate group of players.
However, as we perhaps saw in the second and third Tests, at times that risk-averse, conservative style of play simply isn’t enough to beat the best of the southern hemisphere.
It was largely a similar tale during his lengthy reign with Wales.
Of the 40 games with Wales against Australia, New Zealand and South Africa which Gatland was in charge of, Wales won just seven. A return of 17.5 per cent.
That should be of note to his Wales successor, Wayne Pivac.
Whereas some of the other home nations’ coaches inherit personnel dilemmas stemming from this Lions tour, such as whether Eddie Jones puts faith in Sam Simmonds and Marcus Smith like Gatland did, Pivac doesn’t have the same conundrum.
Eleven Welsh players toured – perhaps a slightly lower number than expected – while only a select few were chosen for the Tests.
Not ideal for the Six Nations champions, but all the players involved unlike with England’s outcasts or even Ireland’s Jack Conan – were frontline players for Pivac.
Instead, the big question for Pivac is how he will approach this autumn’s Tests against New Zealand, South Africa, Australia (as well as Fiji), marking the first time Pivac will take on the southern hemisphere’s big three.
Gatland’s approach this summer might just prove beneficial to Pivac in terms of how he approaches this latest hurdle.
His ideology has always been about staying in the arm wrestle and physically outlasting the opponents. However, all too often, that simply meant the game wasn’t put to bed come the final few minutes.
By placing so much emphasis on going the full 12 rounds, you do, in turn, open yourself to get punched until the final bell.
That was the way again in South Africa again this summer.
There’s a place for pragmatism, but Wales and the Lions under Gatland have largely shown an inability to break down the southern hemisphere sides.
It’s arguably not enough to just be patient in fights and wait for the match to come to you. History tells us that.
The core basics, the non-negotiables, of what Gatland attempted to do in South Africa will remain the same.
The principles of set-piece parity and winning collisions remain crucial, but Pivac will know his Wales team need to do that little bit more to break down the best the southern hemisphere has to offer.
In that regard, one passage of play in particular will offer some encouragement to the former Scarlets coach.
When Finn Russell came on in the third Test, the Lions started playing in a pod formation which we had seen the Lions use in the warm-up games, but move away from in the Tests.
Effectively, it’s playing off your flyhalf with a pod of three - often looking to hit the wide man to stretch the defence and expose gaps around the hinge.
Dan Biggar did it well in the warmups, while Russell did it to great effect when building the Lions’ best chance in open play in the series decider.
The good news for Pivac is that in Wales’ best performance to date under him, against France in this year’s Six Nations, they continuously used a similar pattern to this to break down Shaun Edwards’ defence.
In that Paris clash, Wales and France went toe-to-toe early on, with Pivac’s men forcing the ball wide to stop France reloading in defence.
In particular, they had Biggar playing a varied game - one we probably didn’t see as much as we’d have liked out in South Africa.
Much of that is down to the freedom bestowed by Pivac and Stephen Jones to the Welsh players.
Motion is a big teaching point which Jones has been drilling into the Welsh fly-halves, as noted by Callum Sheedy to WalesOnline earlier this year.
“No matter what drill we’re doing, Stephen is always banging on about first-receivers being in motion and being a threat,” Sheedy said.
“I think Biggs [Dan Biggar] has been brilliant at that and he’s someone I’m learning off. You watch him every time he catches the ball, he’s always moving onto it, he’s always being a threat or sitting someone down.”
Biggar’s passing game diminished as the Test series wore on, but Wales will be confident of getting the best out of not just his tactical kicking and aerial game, but his work as an attacking fly-half.
Again, against France in the Six Nations, he took the ball to the line hard - identifying doglegs and creating easy yards with late passes.
Pivac’s Wales will likely approach the southern hemisphere teams in a slightly different way to Gatland.
This summer’s Lions series has probably once again proven it’s important to do so. The main criticism levelled at Gatland was his record against the southern hemisphere.
As such, Pivac almost certainly needs to do something different. As evidenced by the France game, we might well have seen those seeds being sowed in the past year or so already.
Of course, that doesn’t exactly entitle him to any less scrutiny. The opposite, perhaps.
Ultimately, winning is the only tonic which anyone cares for. Those who decried Gatland and the ‘Boks for being boring likely denounced Pivac’s Wales last year when they couldn’t buy a win.
There is a reason South Africa fans don’t find their team boring. It’s because, more often than not, they win.
New Zealand, South Africa and Australia all in one autumn campaign.
That’s hardly a soft welcome to facing the southern hemisphere for Pivac.
But, if he can learn the lessons of this summer, and perhaps the last decade, he could find some success.