Pivac looking to make a name for himself with Six Nations Grand Slam glory
New head coach Wayne Pivac picked George North to solve his side’s centre crisis and made a plea to be judged on the present not the past as Wales begin their bid to repeat last year’s Six Nations Grand Slam triumph against Italy in Cardiff tomorrow.
“This coaching group want to win it [the Six Nations] because we’ve never done it before,” said Pivac, who succeeded fellow New Zealander, Warren Gatland, after the World Cup last November.
“It’s not our title to defend. Everyone starts on zero and we have to knock the Italians
over. To repeat what they [Gatland’s team] did last year, we have to win every game, which we know will be very difficult.”
Wales finished fourth at the World Cup and in the immediate aftermath Gatland gave Pivac an emotional valedictory message.
“We feel like we have put respect back into Wales as an international team and I really hope the new coaches continue to build on that,” Gatland said. “It would break myheartifwaleswentbackinto the doldrums.”
The 57-year-old former policeman Pivac is expected to be anti-doldrums in his style of play – a belief in getting the ball wider, quicker, has been seen in his time as Scarlets
coach, and with Fiji before that. But clearly what his illustrious predecessor Gatland meant was Wales becoming non-competitive again. Back to the days of Gareth Jenkins, the Llanelli man who actually published a “Welsh way” of playing but saw his team knocked out of the 2007 World Cup by Fiji; back to the Six Nations’ of 2000 to 2007, when Wales finished in the bottom half of the table every year apart from Mike Ruddock’s Grand Slam in 2005.
While Gatland has been commemorated with a set of gates named after him at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, the two uncapped selections in Pivac’s first Six Nations line-up are the Scarlets wing Johnny Mcnicholl and, on the bench, Saracens centre Nick Tompkins.
The 29-year-old Mcnicholl was born in New Zealand, and has qualified on residency, while Tompkins, 24, is a son of Sidcup in Kent who has a grandmother, Enid, from Wrexham. Pivac has brought
Jon Humphreys as forwards coach, Stephen Jones (attack coach), Byron Hayward (defence coach) and Sam Warburton as a part-time breakdown specialist.
But injuries are an everpresent problem and Pivac yesterday revealed the brilliant breakdown marauder Josh Navidi will miss most of the Six Nations with a hamstring injury, joining two other key men, centre Jonathan Davies and full-back Liam Williams, on the sidelines. With Owen Watkin and Willis Halaholo also absent, North, one of the world’s most-capped wings, makes a fifth Test start at centre, with Josh Adams, the top try-scorer at the World Cup, staying on the wing. Gloucester’s exciting starlet Louis Rees-zammit was not considered after a recent ankle injury.
“George has played a few games for the Ospreys at centre; he’s started there for Wales,” Pivac said. “He’s trained well, he’s taken the challenge on and we’re all very happy with what we’re seeing.”
A significant upside for Wales is the return of Taulupe Faletau after the No 8 missed the World Cup. Flankers Aaron Wainwright and Justin Tipuric enhanced their reputations in Japan, as did Jake Ball at lock.
On the bench, Jarrod Evans is Dan Biggar’s stand-off understudy (with Gareth Anscombe still injured), while prop Rob Evans, lock Cory Hill and scrum-half Rhys Webb return.