Pivac: Costly errors won’t derail title charge
WAYNE PIVAC called for patience after he lost for the first time as Wales head coach, saying it would not take major surgery to reinvigorate their Six Nations challenge. A catalogue of calamitous mistakes saw the Grand Slam champions defeated for the first time in the Championship since 2018. Nick Tompkins missed a key tackle for Jordan Larmour’s try, Tomos Williams dropped a ball on his own line which led to Tadhg Furlong’s score, Ken Owens missed an important lineout that allowed Josh van der Flier to rumble over in a maul and George North shelled a catch out wide before Andrew Conway crossed for Ireland’s fourth late on. North’s non-performance was particularly alarming but Pivac was keen to rally round his out-ofform winger. ‘You look more at the inaccurate pass,’ he said of North’s clanger. ‘He’s thinking about having a one-on-one go late in the game to try and score a try the length of the field. When you take a pass on your shoulder behind you it’s probably not the best pass. ‘We won’t blame George for that. We certainly don’t panic. It’s minor tweaks I think. It’s the start of a new era in a lot of ways. We are two games in and are obviously disappointed as the players know we are a lot better than that. ‘It is a competition, no one has won it, it’s not won after two rounds so we need to make sure we keep improving and against France we have a very good performance and we get back to winning ways.’ Williams and Justin Tipuric scored tries for Wales who believe they are by no means finished in this competition, with France, England and Scotland to come. Asked if he thought the champions could still retain their title, flanker Tipuric said: ‘Yes of course, especially this year because there are so many good teams and anybody can turn over anybody on a given day. It’s a long tournament. We won’t win the Grand Slam, but we’re still in with a chance of winning it.’ The last time Wales conceded four tries or more and lost by 10 points in a meaningful Test was the previous occasion they travelled to Dublin — a 37-27 defeat in 2018. With ex-coach Shaun Edwards coming to Cardiff with France in a fortnight Pivac knows his new side must improve. ‘We’ve mentioned the need to be more accurate with the ball,’ he added. ‘Build more pressure, build phases and don’t turn the ball over after one or two.’