Pivac: We’ll give England a Six Nations challenge
WAYNE Pivac insists Wales will push Eddie Jones’ England all the way for the 2021 Six Nations title after they ended their Autumn Nations Cup campaign with a comfortable win over Italy.
Wales won just three Tests from ten in 2020 and struggled for the middle third of their clash with the Azzurri before pulling away to end the tournament in fifth place.
They did show signs in the final quarter of what could be achieved under Pivac as tries came from Kieran Hardy, Sam Parry, Gareth Davies, George North and Justin Tipuric.
Callum Sheedy kicked 13 points in the 38-18 victory.
Marco Zanon and Johan Meyer scored Italy’s tries with eight points coming from the boot of Paolo Garbisi while Wales suffered injuries to captain Alun Wyn Jones and Liam Williams.
“If you look at our form pre-lockdown, you would say we were not too far off in the French game at home and in the game with England,” said Pivac.
“We selected a different type of squad for this autumn series which we thrashed about and discussed quite a bit. We’d like to think we’d have a good crack at the Six Nations.
“With the side we had and the limited training time this particular group had, I think there are more positives than negatives. We’ll take that away now and go and look at the squad for the Six Nations, factoring in all the learnings we’ve got from this.
“Liam suffered a high ankle sprain and Alun Wyn Jones was a knee – it’s a medial ligament injury.
“We’ll get both of those scanned and we’ll know more next week.”
Pivac will have been encouraged by the performance of Taulupe Faletau who was back to his best after a stuttering autumn campaign.
Man of the match Faletau and Tipuric were Wales’ outstanding performers.
“We wanted a good result and got it, but we need to be better. We spoke at halftime about Italy getting back into the game,” said Bath No 8 Faletau.
“They scored a couple of tries and we took our foot off the gas, but overall we’re pleased with the performance and result.
“The young players are very exciting and have a good skillset. It was good for them to get game time and they are promising.”
Tipuric added: “It’s nice to play with Taulupe. To be honest, he did all the hard work and made me look good. A lot of it was down to the front five who gave us front foot ball in the middle.
“We spoke about being physical and we’d get the chances, especially in the second half. In the first half we gave away so many silly penalties and we spoke about sorting that.
“We didn’t want to play like the Baa Baas and sling it around because Italy can put points on you. In the end we came out on top. There were a lot of fresh faces in this campaign which made it tough for cohesion, but we always want to win and there is no doubt about that.”
Pivac rightly hailed Faletau’s display, but also that of North who made his sixth Test start at centre and was rewarded for a committed display with his 41st Test try. North’s try was his 10th against Italy.
“George did more good things than ones he wouldn’t be happy with,” said Pivac.
“Going forward, with George working hard at his game, he should be able to offer us more than just being a winger at this level of the game.
“He will be a winger that can play at centre going forward. We finished that game very strongly. We certainly weren’t able to do that at the start of the competition.
“Taulupe is one of many guys that have benefited from the work he has done over the last eight weeks. You’ve got to say that he’s back to near his best so that’s pleasing for us.”